By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 1 Sep: In all, 20 proposals were approved by the State Cabinet at its meeting held at the Secretariat under chairmanship of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, here, today. As had already been indicated by Garhwal Post, the State Cabinet approved grant of 10 percent horizontal reservation in state government jobs for the statehood agitationists or their dependants. With the approval of the fresh proposal in this regard, a bill in this respect will be tabled in the House in the upcoming state assembly session beginning 5 September. The bill will be implemented with retrospective effect from 2004 onwards.
In addition, as already indicated by Garhwal Post, the cabinet also approved a proposal for grant of paternity leave and child care leave to contractual and outsourced employees of the state government.
It may be recalled that a bill granting reservations in state government jobs to statehood agitationists or their dependants had been passed in the past, too, in the state assembly but it had failed to get approval of the Governor on technical grounds and had remained unimplemented. Due to this, despite announcements in this regard several times, the government could not issue any GO in this respect. The bill had remained pending for years in the Raj Bhawan Secretariat. Last year, the government had sought to recall the bill so that an amended one could be brought to replace it.
It may be recalled that the cabinet meeting held during the last assembly session held in Gairsain, too, had approved the grant of 10 percent horizontal reservation to the statehood agitationists or their dependants. However, there was no draft of the bill before the cabinet then and it was only an in principle approval of the same.
In addition, a bill seeking repeal of several obsolete laws will also be tabled in the House during the Monsoon Session. The cabinet gave its approval for the same in the meeting held today.
In addition, the Cabinet also approved proposals regarding the first supplementary budget of the current financial year (2023-24). Several departments have submitted their demands for grants under this supplementary budget and they will be tabled in the upcoming session for approval of the House. Sources added that a supplementary budget to the tune of Rs 11,000 crores is likely to be tabled in the upcoming session.
The cabinet also approved affiliating the law courses of various colleges running LLB and LLM courses with the Uttarakhand Technical University. A bill will have to be brought in the upcoming session in this regard. The Cabinet also approved some amendments in the Hdyropower Policy.
With regard to the AYUSH Department, a fresh policy regarding recruitment examinations was also discussed and approved by the Cabinet. It was also decided that an Umbrella Act would be drafted and enacted for the government universities of the state. For this, a draft has already been prepared and is likely to be tabled in the House during the upcoming session. An umbrella act for private universities was also discussed and agreed upon in principle. Under the umbrella act, a provision has been made for concession of 25 percent in admission and tuition fees for the students belonging to Uttarakhand.
The cabinet also approved a GST Amendment Bill and the Public Debt Bill. Besides this, the cabinet also approved a bill providing for child care, maternity and paternity leave to daily wage, contractual and outsourced employees working for the state government. The cabinet also approved the structure of the State Institute of Hotel Management, Ramnagar.
In an important decision that may be of interest to Doon residents, the Cabinet also approved the Indira Market Redevelopment Project. In another important decision, the cabinet approved a proposal to add 148 new posts in the Disaster Management Department in order to further augment its capabilities.
