PATNA, May 25 -- Bihar has established Bihar Green Climate Fund (BCGF) and introduced targeted environmental cess charges to finance pollution control, climate action and green cover initiatives. The funds are generated through specific levies across multiple sectors. While there will be 1% cess on registration of new vehicles (excluding EVs), there will be 0.5% cess on royalty of sand mining and 0.25% cess on agricultural contracts and all development work tenders. Bihar Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Chaudhary on Sunday said with climate change and rising temperature becoming a matter of serious global concern, the fund would be used for targeted intervention to take on the environmental challenge. "Voluntary contribution would also be accepted under corporate social responsibility (CSR). The environmental challenge is for the real and if quick remedial steps were not taken now, time would run out. The government is conscious of the fact and has been working on it with sensitivity," he added, recalling the 'Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali' campaign of 2019. The campaign led to significant improvement in ground water levels and now the government under CM Samrat Choudhary is taking it forward. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also appealed to the people for greater use of public transport and shared vehicles to reduce carbon emissions, which would go a long way in environmental protection. There is also need to bring change in daily life," he added. Bihar faces serious environmental challenges due to encroachment of river beds and Bihar Water Resources Department reporting over 40 rivers in the state drying up or are experiencing critically low water volumes prior to peak summer. Groundwater depletion and dead storage levels in reservoirs have prompted the state to scale up its irrigation infrastructure, but pollution of water bodies has thrown another challenge due to heavy contamination....