By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 2 Mar: Several important decisions were taken by the Dhami Government during a cabinet meeting held here, today, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Some of the important decisions included the decision to do away with the necessity for interviews in recruitment on Group C government posts, decisions to amend rules to encourage self employment through solar energy generation, approving amendment to the Right To Services Act in order to facilitate the general public, fixation of procurement prices of sugarcane for the current crushing season, decision to facilitate setting up of Electric Charging stations in order to promote Electric vehicles and increase of compensation in case of road accidents.
Important decisions taken by the Cabinet were:
With a view to making timely and quick services available to the citizens and to make the ‘Right to Service Commission’ more effective and empowered, the cabinet approved a proposal made to amend the “Right to Service Act 2011”. As per the proposed amendment, the time limit for disposal of second appeal has been fixed as 45 days. Some other minor changes were also approved in this regard and include the procedure for appointment of the chief commissioner and two commissioners by the state government in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. The term of service will be three years or 65 years, whichever is earlier and the Right to Service Commission is to be given the rights like the Information Commission.
The State Advised Price (SAP) of sugarcane to be procured by the state’s cooperative, public and private sector sugar mills during the crushing season was fixed at Rs 355 per quintal at the mill gates for the early varieties and at Rs 345 per quintal at the mill gates for the ordinary varieties. The SAP will be applicable for the Crushing Season 2022-23. It may be recalled that the SAP is determined by the State Government on the basis of the recommendation of the State Advisory Committee constituted for this purpose. The government has not revised the SAP for this season and the SAP announced for this year is same as had been fixed for the last crushing season. Like the last crushing season, it has been decided to fix Rs 9.50 per quintal as deduction charges for transportation of sugarcane from external purchase centres of sugar mills to the mill.
A very important decision was taken to constitute a high powered committee to verify the encroachments on government and private land and take a suitable decision in this regard. According to the sources, this decision has been taken in view of large scale encroachments on the outskirts of several cities and the ‘attempt to change the demography of the city population’.
In an important decision, the Cabinet also approved a proposal to amend the ‘Uttarakhand Road Transport Accident Relief Fund Rules’ for grant of accident relief to the next of kin in case of death in accident and to the person in case of serious injury or injury of the passenger in road accidents. These rules had been promulgated in 2008. Under the existing rules, the mandatory requirement of a magisterial inquiry for grant of relief to the victims often delayed payment of relief. The Cabinet approved the proposal to do away the requirement of magisterial inquiry before the grant of relief to the victims. Also, the cabinet approved a proposal to increase the limit of funds to be kept at the disposal of the District Magistrate from Rs 25 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs.
In another decision approved by the cabinet, in order to make “Mukhyamantri Saur Swarozgar Yojana” more financially viable, the scheme guideline has been amended. Now, the scheme will be operated under the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Policy- (MSME) 2015 in place of the Chief Minister’s Self-Employment Scheme of the Micro, Small and Medium Department. Also, now the grant to be made available to the beneficiaries has also been increased from up to 25 to up to 40 percent. Plants of 50 kW, 100 kW and 200 kW will be set up in place of 20 to 25 kW plants. In view of the increase in the rate of plant cost, instead of Rs 40,000 per kW, the rates have been revised to Rs 50,000 per kW.
The Cabinet also approved setting up of a High Powered Committee to approve and oversee projects in view of the upcoming G-20 Summit at Ramnagar.
With the aim of providing high quality training and education to the youth of Uttarakhand in the field of hotel management and providing employment opportunities, degree courses will be upgraded to fulfil the standards of All India Council of Technical Education, New Delhi. For this, additional posts will also be created.
The cabinet also approved proposals to incorporate provisions related to creation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Building Construction and Development Bye-laws/Regulations, 2011.
As per the approval of the cabinet, out of the development fee received by the district level development authorities for map approval, 10 percent of the development fee received by the district level development authorities is to be given to the local municipal bodies. This amount will be used for slum rehabilitation and related infrastructure creation under the local municipal bodies.
An amendment was approved in rule 17 of the Uttarakhand Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Rules, 2003, according to which the registration will be deemed to have been granted if a decision is not taken by the authority concerned within 20 days of filing the application.
