27-12-22 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

Governor RV Arlekar has given approval to the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religions (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and nine other Bills. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu gave this information in the House on the second day of the Winter Session here today. These Bills were passed during the tenure of the previous BJP government.

According to the HP Freedom of Religions (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the definition of mass conversion will now mean the conversion of two or more persons at the same time. Under Section 7 of the Act, any person, who converts to another religion, shall not take any benefit of his parent religion or caste after conversion. If a person gives a false declaration and takes the benefit of caste or religion after conversion, he or she shall be liable for imprisonment of not less than two years, which can be extended up to five years, and a fine up to Rs 1 lakh.

The amendment also states that anyone found involved in mass conversion in contravention of the provisions of the Act shall be liable for five to 10 years of imprisonment. If the offence is committed for the second time, the minimum imprisonment term shall be seven years, extendable up to 10 years and a fine up to Rs 1 lakh. Other Bills that were tabled in the House include the Himachal Pradesh Appropriation (Number 3) Bill, 2022. It provides authorisation of Rs 474 crore out of the consolidated fund of Himachal Pradesh to meet certain expenditure of financial year 2013-14.

The HP (Amendment) Bill 2021 provides for the appointment of a judge as Lokayukta. Earlier, only the High Court Chief Justice was eligible for the post.

The Himachal Pradesh Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Amendment Bill aims to regulate the use of underground water. It has a provision of five years of imprisonment for the violation of provisions.

The Himachal Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill 2022 provides that the Fiscal Deficit in the state Budget for financial year 2020-21 can exceed by 3 per cent to 4 per cent of the state GDP.

Kolkata Metro RAILWAY Corporation has taken up the difficult take of making the tunnel with the help of German machines and the best experts. Work inside the tunnel is still in progress.

As far as the cost of construction of the underground metro is concerned, it costs about Rs 120 crore per kilometre to build the tunnel but the manufacturing cost of the tunnel underwater, which is deep in the Hooghly river costs increased to around 157 crores by per kilometre.

According to a government announcement, Indias goods and Services tax receipts increased 15% year over year in December to Rs 1.49 lakh crore ($18.07 billion), suggesting robust economic activity throughout the holiday season. In November, revenue from goods and services taxes totaled Rs. 1.46 lakh crore.

The total amount of GST revenue collected in December 2022 was Rs 1,49,507 crore, of which the CGST portion was Rs 26,711 crore, the SGST portion was Rs 33,357 crore, the IGST portion was Rs 78,434 crore (including Rs 40,263 crore from the collection of GST on goods imported), and the Cess portion was Rs 11,005 crore (including Rs 850 crore collected on import of goods).

The government made a regular settlement of Rs 36,669 crore to CGST and Rs 31,094 crore to SGST from IGST.