Cabinet Decisions
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 25 Jun: The Uttarakhand Cabinet today approved a proposal to start the Char Dham Yatra from 1 July. The Cabinet took several decisions today at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat. At the onset of the meeting, the Cabinet paid tribute to the late Indira Hridayesh, the Leader of the Opposition, who recently expired, and observed two minutes of silence as a mark of respect to her.
According to the decision taken by the Cabinet, to begin with, the Yatra would first resume for the local people of the three districts, namely Chamoli, Rudrprayag and Uttarkashi. While people of Uttarkashi would be permitted to undertake the Yatra for Gangotri and Yamonotri, local residents of Chamoli district would be permitted to undertake Yatra to the Badrinath Shrine, while residents of Rudraprayag would be permitted to undertake Yatra of Kedarnath. Guidelines in this respect would soon be issued. A negative RTPCR or Rapid Antigen test report would be mandatory for those undertaking the Yatra.
The Cabinet decided that all the priests deputed at various Char Dham Shrines would be vaccinated before the start of the Yatra. To organise the Chardham Yatra, a senior officer would be deployed to coordinate with the Devasthanam Board and the district administrations in order to ensure implementation of the SOPs related to Covid. Monitoring would be done for implementation.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal to allow overtime work in factories during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the exemption granted by the Cabinet, in a shift of 12 hours, four hours of overtime would be permissible. For a worker, a maximum overtime of 6 days and a maximum of 24 hours would be permissible but with the condition that a rest time of 30 minutes would be mandatory after every 6 hours of work. No layoffs would be allowed during the pandemic.
Permission was granted to extend the period of special incentive scheme for women entrepreneurs run by the Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Uttarakhand till 31st March, 2023. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to promulgate Clerical Service Rules 2021 of Uttarakhand Medical Health and Family Welfare Department. Relaxation was granted by the Cabinet in the procurement manual regarding construction of underground transmission lines in Selaqui which faced problems in uninterrupted power supply for oxygen generation to M/s Linde, Selakui. For the financial year 2021-22, it was decided to decrease the contribution of women weavers from 10 percent to 5 percent under the Handloom Spinning-Weaving Women Workers Assistance Scheme. Under sub-section (12) of section 32 of Uttarakhand Value Added (VAT) Tax Act, permission was granted by the Cabinet to extend the deadline for settlement of claims for assessment or reassessment of tax for the year 2017-18 from 23 April to 29 September.
The Cabinet today also approved a proposal for permission to use Tata Magic vans as ambulances in order to meet increasing demand in view of the Covid pandemic. This proposal was approved at the request of Tata Motors Pantnagar. Tata Magic was allowed to operate as an ambulance through contract workers instead of trained staff for a period of 9 months. All the benefits would accrue to these contract workers like regular workers.
