Source: TOI
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is now trying to get an airport at his village, Saifai, near Etawah.
A proposal to this effect was given a go-ahead by the state cabinet at its meeting held here on Tuesday. A Rs 45-crore project drawn up for this purpose in the first phase will be implemented by the country's premier rail constructing agency, RITES, by 2006.
Briefing journalists, acting chief secretary Neera Yadav said, "The government airstrip will be used for building the airport, which will be equipped with most advanced technology. The whole idea is to make it comparable to any of the world's best international airports."
The commercial utility of the airport, however, remains a question mark, as Safai has hardly any attraction.
For the propagation of education, particularly among girls in rural areas, Neera Yadav said the cabinet had decided to give relief to private managements by way of giving them 50 per cent relaxation in stamp fee on the land to be mortgaged by them. The benefit will be there till March 31, 2005. Besides, these managements will continue to get a grant up to Rs 20 lakh for setting up these schools and colleges in areas without such facilities.
In order to check the trade tax evasion, the Cabinet has done away with the policy announced in 1997 and approved new rules under which only specified items, manufactured by industries having an annual turnover of Rs 50 lakh, would be entitled for trade-tax exemption. Also, all buses entering UP from different states would now be taxed. For this purpose, the cabinet approved the amendment in the Motor Vehicle Act. This way the state expects to earn Rs 1 crore monthly.
Under the film policy, the government has now decided to give away a scholarship of Rs 25,000 each to maximum 10 students of the state taking admission in any of the discipline of acting arts in the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata.
This facility is already given to 10 students of the state, are selected to the Film and Television Institute of India, Poona. The cabinet also gave an entertainment tax exemption for six months to the feature film Lakshya.
‘Lakshya’ tax-free in Delhi, U.P, Bengal
Source: Taran Adarsh, IndiaFM
Farhan Akhtar’s LAKSHYA has been tax-exempted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. It remains to be seen whether the business of the film will show a jump with tax-exempted rates.
Meanwhile, Excel Entertainment, the makers of LAKSHYA, has tied up with Avtar Media, Los Angeles for co-production of films and distribution of crossover films