Govt comes to aid of film Industry

Mumbai, Sep 12 (UNI) Alarmed by the thriving piracy that was eating into the revenue of Bollywood, the government today decided to bring video piracy under the ambit of the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act.

A decision to this effect was taken at the Maharashtra Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. A person violating the act could be jailed for 12 months.

The film industry was facing huge losses due to video piracy and it was found that people involved in video piracy were connected to international criminal gangs and terrorists groups of neighbouring countries.

The government also decided to to give concessions to powerloom sector in power rates, which will impose an additional burden of Rs 300 crore on the government in 2007-08.

The powerloom sector was given concessional rates since 2001 and till March 2007 the state government has given Rs 1,604 crore to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Corporation.

The government also took the decision to bear the fees of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, 'Vimukta Jati', nomadic tribes, special backward class and economic backward class students, studying in professional courses run by private non aided institutions.

The cabinet approved increase in bed capacity in various government health centres, increasing the number to 11,892 beds all over the state.

UNI