Uri attacks: Nitish increases ex-gratia for Bihar's martyred soldiers' families to Rs 11L each

Patna: The Nitish Kumar cabinet on Tuesday announced to enhance ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakh each which will be paid to kin of three soldiers, hailing from Bihar and killed in a terror attack on an army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Monday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the three soldiers which was enhanced to Rs 11 lakh. The decision to scale up ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakh each was taken at a meeting of state Cabinet chaired by Kumar after the wife of martyr Ashok took snipe at Nitish calling him “beggar”. Three martyred soldiers of Bihar are S K Vidyarthi from Gaya, Rakesh Singh from Kaimur and Ashok Kumar Singh from Ara in Bhojpur district. Saluting bravery of the soldiers who were killed in the terror attack at Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, the CM had announced to accord full state honour to the three martyred soldiers of the Bihar regiment. Three ministers attended the funeral ceremony of the as many martyred at different places. In other important decisions, the Bihar cabinet gave its nod for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Central Board of Excise And Customs (CBEC), Governmenmt of India, for implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), likely to be rolled out from April 1, 2017. "The state cabinet gave its nod for signing of a MoU between state's Commercial Taxes Department and Central Board of Excise And Customs (CBEC), Ministry of Finance, Governmenmt of India. The decision would help in sharing of data with each other," Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters in a post cabinet briefing here. Now, the MoU will be sent to the Government of India which would approve it, Mehrotra said, adding that Bihar would share various details such as tax collected on items, volume of taxes, number of those under VAT and other tax net in state. The cabinet also sanctioned Rs 2100 crore as subsidy for Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd and its two subsidiary companies - North and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd- on account of making payment for power purchase from NTPC.