Seventeen New Airports Proposed

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Shri K.C. Venugopal informed Rajya Sabha today that seventeen new airports have been proposed for construction during the 12^th Five Year Plan.  The list of the new airports is as follows:

Sl.No.	Location	State
1.	Mopa	Goa
2.	Gulbarga	Karnataka
3.	Bijapur
4.	Hassan
5.	Shimoga
6.	Aranmula (Pathanamthitta)	Kerala
7.	Kannur
8.	Sindhudurg	Maharashtra
9.	Navi Mumbai
10.	Shirdi
11.	Dabra	Madhya Pradesh
12.	Karaikal	Pudducherry
13.	Kushinagar	Uttar Pradesh
14.	Andal-Faridpur	West Bengal
15.	Itanagar	Arunachal Pradesh
16.	Kishangarh (Ajmer)	Rajasthan
17.	Deoghar	Jharkhand

Source:-PIB

'My Stamp' service gathering dust

Response to the general post office's (GPO) novel initiative, 'My Stamp', as been far from encouraging. It was launched in March. Postal officials blamed it on inadequate manpower and lack of awareness about the facility among the public.

Sources said the service allows individuals to choose thematic postal stamp sheets and personalize them with their photograph or that of their friends. Corporate houses can also have their company logo embossed on the stamp.

"A person can approach the post office with a hard or a soft copy of the photograph or get themselves clicked at the head office at AG Square in Bhubaneswar," said in-charge of 'My Stamp' programme Basanti Chakra.

A sheet of 12 stamps costs Rs 300. Corporate houses are required to place a minimum order for 500 sheets. Artwork, heritage buildings, tourist places, animals and birds can also be imprinted on the stamp, which can be used as postage.

"Dearth of technical staff has proved to be an impediment in proper implementation of the facility. The photographs have to be superimposed on the stamps and prints of the sheet taken out," said Chakra.

The personalized stamps can be a boon for city philatelists if promoted properly. "People are getting a chance to put their favourite themes on the stamp, which sounds exciting," said Sushil Manohar Das, a stamp collector.

Senior superintendent of post offices (Bhubaneswar division) Aditya Nayak admitted that the service was not advertised properly.

"We will soon put up billboards at the GPO and other post offices across the state to make people aware of the initiative," he said.

Source:-The Times of India

UPU News:-Young Czech writer wins 2013 International Letter-Writing Competition

Fifteen-year-old Daniel Korcak, from Ostrava, Czech Republic, has won the Universal Postal Union’s 42nd International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People with his letter to the central European river, the Oder.

Daniel Korcak, with his mother and sister, says his win came as a complete surprise

Recalling the current International Year of Water Cooperation, the 2013 contest asked budding writers to explain why water is a precious resource.

"I thought many students would write to a person, so I decided to write my letter directly to water,” says the gold-medal winner, whose simple, creative and innovative prose captivated the international jury.

"In the river you create, we bathe, fish, children play with you when building stone dams, athletes on boats struggle against your power, and many seek peace and quiet in your whisper… near your river, there is your sister, healing water, which… waits to be carried to the nearby spa where it helps heal our ailments," wrote Daniel, who plays competitive handball when not in school.

"Daniel reminds us just how much we depend on water, too often taken for granted. His letter, tender and universal in its appeal, portrays the Oder as a symbol of water everywhere," declared the jury.

UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein congratulated this year’s winners, saying: “Communication is at the heart of the postal activity and, in a sea of digital messages, it remains critical for young people to understand the importance of the written word and the structured composition and recognize the emotions and call to action good writing can elicit. Postal services support literacy and communication, and we are delighted that our competition touches so many young people.”

An estimated 1.5 million young people from 60 countries participated in this year’s contest.

Second and third prizes

Nazifa Farhat Hye, 14, from Sylhet, Bangladesh, wins the silver medal, while Gabija Petrauskaité, 13, from Sventoji, Lithuania, wins bronze.

The jury also awarded special mentions to: Cy. M. Rodriguez from the Philippines, Priya-Vani Heera from Trinidad and Tobago, and Dao Thuy Thuy Duong from Viet Nam.

Winners will receive their prizes on 9 October 2013, World Post Day.

Govt warns tax deductors who fail to deposit TDS by due date

 In a stern warning, the Revenue department  said on 6/8/2013 tax deductors who default in depositing TDS by due date will be liable for prosecution and can be imprisoned for up to seven years. 

"It has come to the notice of Income Tax Department that many times the tax deductors, after deducting TDS from specified payments, are deliberately not depositing the taxes so deducted in government account... 

"Such retention of government dues beyond the due date is an offence liable for prosecution under Section 276B of the Income Tax Act, 1961," the Central Board of Direct taxes (CBDT) said in a statement. 

"The defaulter, if convicted, can be sentenced to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) for a term which can extend up to seven years," it added. 

The statement further said that the TDS units of income tax department have been taking up prosecution proceedings in cases where the tax deducted at source has been retained beyond the due date. 

The CBDT has partly modified existing guidelines for identification of cases for launching prosecution. 

As per the revised guidelines, the criterion of minimum retention period of 12 months has been dispensed with, the CBDT said in statement. 

The department added, however, that the offence under section 276B of the Income Tax Act can be compounded by Chief Commissioner having jurisdiction on the case, either before or after the launching of prosecution proceedings.

Source:-The Economic Times

Raghuram Rajan will be new RBI Governor

Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram G Rajan, who as IMF economist had predicted the 2008 global crisis, was today appointed the new RBI Governor.

Rajan, 50, will succeed D Subbarao, who by his hawkish policy stood his ground on continuing with a tight monetary policy despite repeated entreaties from the government to ease interest rates to boost growth. Subbarao will demit office on September 4.

Source:-PTI

National award-winning cinematographer Ashok Mehta on postal stamp

Ashok Mehta 

To commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema, the postal authority has issued a stamp with the image of ace cinematographer-filmmaker Ashok Mehta, who passed away on August 15 last year.

Known for his work in Bandit Queen, Utsav andParoma, the National Award winner (for 36 Chowringhee Lane and Moksh, a film he directed) lost the battle to cancer last year. 

With the postal stamp, he will of course remain in Indian cinema's history books forever.

Missed the tax filing deadline? Know what to do

The surge in the number of e-filers on 31 July, the last day for filing income tax returns, overloaded the system and forced the government to extend the deadline to 5 August. This last-minute rush has become a regular feature in the past few years. The system gets overloaded because a large number of taxpayers wait till the last day. In the melee, many of them are unable to file by the due date.

The rush is greater this year because of the new rule that if your taxable income is Rs 5 lakh and above, it is mandatory to e-file your return. Also, if you have foreign assets, you have to take the online route even if the income is below Rs 5 lakh.

There are other reasons why a taxpayer may miss the filing deadline. There could be mistakes in their Form 16 or TDS details, which could not be resolved in time. It is also possible that the details of foreign assets, which have to be mentioned in the tax returns, were not available, or perhaps, the taxpayer was too ill to file his return. If, however, you have missed the extended deadline as well, the good news is that the Income Tax Department allows you to file your returns till 31 March 2014, the last day of the assessment year.

However, missing the filing deadline is not an earth shattering event. The online filing data reveals that the biggest surge in tax filing is witnessed not on 31 July but on 31 March the next year. This year, for instance, the peak daily rate of receipt of returns was clocked on 31 March when 7.5 lakh taxpayers filed their returns. If all taxes are paid, a taxpayer will not face any penalty or get a notice for non-filing.

However, if there is some tax to be paid, he will have to shell out a 1% late payment fee for every month of delay since April 2013. If the tax due is more than Rs 10,000, the taxpayer should have paid an advance tax. Advance tax is payable in three tranches— 30% is to be paid by 15 July of the financial year, 60% by 15 December and 100% by 31 March. If advance tax has not been paid, the penalty per month will be applicable from the due date of the advance tax.

There is more good news for the lazy taxpayer. If you miss the 31 March 2014 deadline, you can still file the return. This means you can file last year's return as well. However, such returns will be treated as belated and the assessing officer can levy a penalty of Rs 5,000 for late filing. Though the tax laws give you a grace period if you file your return late, you also forego some of your rights as a taxpayer. For one, you cannot modify your tax return if it has been filed after the due date. If you have filed by the due date (5 August for this year), you can modify it any number of times before the end of the assessment year or till the return is assessed. However, after the due date, you are not allowed to modify it. So if you miss any deduction or exemption, you can't claim it later. You also cannot carry forward any shortterm or long-term losses if you have filed after the due date. The taxpayers who file by the due date can carry forward capital losses and adjust them against future capital gains. They can also carry forward these losses up to eight financial years. So, if you suffered capital losses in 2012-13, these can be adjusted against gains made till 2020-21. This benefit is not available to the late filer. Source:-The Economic Times

Sexual offenders in office stand to lose job, promotion

You could risk losing at least 10% of your salary every month for a year, promotions, withdrawal of privileges and perks or even face termination of service if found guilty of sexually harassing a woman at your workplace. These are part of the new rules under the Sexual Harassment at Workplace(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) that was passed by Parliament recently. The rules empower the complaints committee to restrict the perpetrator's entry from the workplace if the guilty happens to be an outsider. The panel can also impose a fine of Rs 500, or 5% of the woman's salary in case of a false or malicious complaint.

These provisions are included in new rules that have been drafted by the ministry of women and child development and sent to the law ministry for their opinion. The provisions are likely to be notified by end-August.
A complaints committee, established under the law, will be empowered to recommend and impose a written apology, censure, withhold promotions, pay hikes or increments, entitlements and privileges, impose termination of service in case where they find a case of sexual harassment. The committee can also revoke, suspend any licence or registration in cases like a doctor or a lawyer's licence.

If the act has been committed by an outsider or a visitor the committee can pass orders to restrict the entry of the perpetrator or forewarn him of criminal and legal action in case of trauma to the victim. The guilty also risks losing a minimum of 10% of his salary every month for a period of a year or in a lump sum. The committee has been given powers to take in to consideration the nature of relationship between the complainant and the accused, the position of the respondent in the hierarchy and the incidents of prior complaint before determining the nature of penalty.

It can also slap a fine of Rs 500 or 5% of the salary of the complainant every month for a year in case of a false or malicious complaint.

The sexual harassment law, which has been in effect from April, is applicable to organized and unorganized workplaces including educational institutions, hospitals, residences (applicable to domestic workers) and provides a mechanism for the implementation of the Vishakha guidelines of 1997. Sexual harassment has been described broadly in the act as any attempt to promise or give preferential treatment, threaten or attempt to give detrimental treatment to an employee, create a work environment that is hostile, offensive or intimidating or humiliate an employee so that it affects her health or safety.

Source:-The Times of India

Over 5000 govt residences to be built in southwest Delhi

In an effort to meet the shortage of accommodation for government officers, Centre is working on building over 5,000 houses as part of a 240 acre residential project in Ghitorni in southwest Delhi.

Official sources said the project will be developed by National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) in association with Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to which the land belongs.

The project would include building of 5000 plus residences in addition to office space.

Source:-PTI

Retired postal official’s ode to love

DIBAI, BULANDSHAHR DISTRICT: Kaesar Kala in Dibai is now famous for its own modern-day Shah Jahan, Faizul Hasan Qadari. A retired postal assistant, Qadari is building a replica of the Taj Mahal in memory of his late wife, Tajamulli Begum, in this small village in UP's Bulandshahr district. 

"My wife did not ask me to build a Taj Mahal for her. In fact, she had never seen it but I wanted to do something for her," said Qadari, 78, of the 5,500-sq-ft memorial that he is constructing on his two-acre farm. "Since we didn't have kids, she used to say that when we die, nobody will remember us. So after she passed away in 2011, I thought I would construct this tomb. People in the village will never forget us." 

The replica, which he has named 'Yaadgaar', has been designed by Qadari. He had seen the original on a visit to Agra for a training programme in 1974, and from a picture on the cover of a guidebook he bought then, he and a local mason are today copying the structure in white marble replica stone. "I did approach an architect in Aligarh last year to help me. He charged Rs 3,000 but I didn't like his drawings. After that I used the guidebook that I have since my training days," Qadari said. It's a grueling task, and they have made mistakes. "The dome had to be reconstructed as it was tilting on the right side," he revealed. 

Qadari has invested his entire savings of Rs 9.3 lakh in the project, but four months ago, work had to be stopped due to lack of funds. "Whatever I had has been put into it, and I had to sell my wife's jewellery also. People have offered me loans but what will I tell my wife in the afterlife, that I constructed it for her using loaned money? Never," said Qadari, who is now saving his Rs 9,000 monthly pension to restart the project. "By next year, I'm hopeful of saving Rs 50,000 to buy more stone." 

Ask about his wife and Qadari lights up, and shows her photos. "Ours was an arranged marriage but I fell in love with her the moment we were married. We spent a good 58 years together and all the while she supported me," Qadari said. Living alone today, he turns to poetry to express his feelings and even sleeps with his wife's tombstone that has a couplet written by him, which reads, 'Na koi Sheesh Mahal hai, na koi Taj Mahal hai, hai Yaadgaar-e-Mohabbat, yeh pyaar ka mahal hai'. "Once the tomb is ready, this tombstone will be fixed," he said, revealing that in the meantime, people from the village are using the memorial as a recreational spot. "They dirty the place and it's difficult to keep it clean. I try to shush them away but my old legs don't work the way they used to," said Qadari, who has reserved the grave next to his wife for himself. 

Coping with pain in his knees, he finds it difficult to stand for long. But he wakes up every day looking at 'Yaadgaar' from his bedroom window. "I have told everyone that when I die, I have to be buried next to my wife, inside the structure," he concluded. 

Source:-The Times of India