Bihar enhances ex-gratia for martyred soldiers from Bihar

The Nitish Kumar Cabinet today decided to enhance the ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakh from Rs 5 lakh for kin of army personnel hailing from Bihar, who are martyred in war or war-like situation.
"The state government took a policy decision to pay Rs 11 lakh as ex-gratia to the kins of soldiers and officers, hailing from Bihar, martyred in war or war-like situation," Cabinent Secretariat Department Principal Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters here in a post Cabinet briefing.
The state government would also bear the expenditure incurred on cremation/last rites of such soldiers, Mehrotra said.
The Bihar government had on September 19 announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia each to three soldiers hailing from Bihar, who were martyred in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan-sponsored terror attack.

The three soldiers killed in September 18 terror attack were from Bihar regiment that included - S K Vidyarthi (Gaya), Rakesh Singh (Kaimur) and Ashok Kumar Singh from Ara (Bhojpur).
Later, the state Cabinet on September 20 enhanced the ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakh for the three soldiers killed in Uri terror attack.

Besides, the government had also paid ex-gratia amount of Rs 11 lakh to the families of BSF soldier Jitendra Kumar Singh (East Champaran) and army havildar Rajiv Kumar Rai (Vaishali district) who lost lives in border firing in the aftermath of surgical strikes.
In another decision, the state Cabinet gave its nod for transfer of 10 hectares of land to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for construction of building for National Integrated Agriculture Research Centre at Piprakothi in East Champaran, Mehrotra said.

Notably, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh had inaugurated the Centre last year whose main objective would be to conduct research on the development of location specific integrated farming system.
Altogether, 13 decisions were taken today at Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.