By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 18 Apr: The Uttarakhand Cabinet today approved a total of 21 proposals during its meeting held at the Secretariat here, today, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu briefed the media on the decisions taken today.
These include the decision to waive an amount of Rs 65 lakhs to build houses for poor Tibetans. Apart from this, the cabinet approved a proposal for construction of a ropeway at Neelkanth Mahadev. This ropeway will be built from Rishikesh to Neelkanth Mahadev Temple. The cabinet also approved the reorganisation of four posts in the Finance Department.
Apart from this, in an important decision, the cabinet accepted the proposal of the Department of Technical Education, under which six engineering colleges will be considered as campuses of Uttarakhand Technical University.
The cabinet has also approved the proposal for creation of 30 temporary posts in the Public Service Commission. In another decision, the cabinet approved the proposal to remove village Siroli Kala from Kichha Nagar Panchayat.
The Uttarakhand Cabinet today also accorded sanction to automated e-Stamping for bank guarantees. It may be recalled that Uttarakhand Government in its new excise policy had agreed to reduce VAT with a view to curb liquor smuggling. The cabinet today approved the notification to be issued in this respect.
The cabinet also approved a major proposal related to the horticulture department for installation of polyhouses. The proposal intends to install 17,646 polyhouses under the horticulture department with a cost of over Rs 300 crores. Under this proposal, 80 percent of the cost will be borne by the farmers themselves while a subsidy of 20 percent will be given by the government. These polyhouses will have to cultivate flowers and fruit crops.
The cabinet also approved a proposal by the State Planning Department to set up an Uttarakhand Investment and Development Board which will be in the PPP mode. A notification in this regard will be issued soon.
The GST department’s ‘Bill Lao Inam Pao’ scheme has also been extended for another year. The quorum for the District Planning Committees in the Panchayati Raj Department has now been reduced to less than 50 percent. This decision has been taken in view of the fact that many big decisions could not be taken in the meetings of the district planning committees for want of quorum. The cabinet also approved a major decision to develop 603 government primary schools and 76 upper primary schools as centres of excellence.
