In view of the Kumbh Mela slated to be held at Haridwar next year, the Uttarakhand Government has created 31 special posts at various levels in Government. A decision in this regard was taken at the meeting of the State Cabinet held on Thursday. 

The Cabinet Minister and government spokesperson, Madan Kaushik said that posts of one assistant Mela Officer, one information officer, one accountant, senior assistant, two junior assistants, four data entry operators, two peons, one Chowidar, one mate, ten labourers, two revenue inspectors and five assistant revenue inspectors have been created.

 In another important decision, the state cabinet also cleared all obstacles from the path of handing over the land of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) to the tourism department. The lease of the 830 acre land in ending in March this year. It was decided that the union government would return the land to the state government. The land would first of all be transferred to the forest department which will hand over it to the tourism department.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh would get 200 acres of the land for its expansion. Kaushik said that a total of 18 issues were put before the cabinet on the day out of which two were sent to cabinet subcommittee while it was decided to bring one proposal in next cabinet.

The meeting was chaired by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. A silence of two minutes was observed by the cabinet as a mark of respect to father of nation Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary.

The cabinet also decided to increase the upper age limit from 35 years to 42 years for the subordinate services of transport department. It was decided to extend the time of hearing of old cases of VAT from January 2020 to March 2020.

Kaushik said that the state government would file a review petition in Supreme Court (SC) and request for extension the time period it had set for payment of pension to the work charge employees of Public Works Department (PWD). It is pertinent to mention here that the SC had ordered the state government to pay the pension to these employees within three months. The cabinet also decided to reduce consultancy fee for consultants engaged on reconstruction work of Kedarnath from 3.2 percent to 2 percent. The cabinet also approved the proposal to open a residential school in Jaiharikhal in Pauri district.

The school would be managed by a trust and the CM would be the chairman of the trust while its deputy chairman would be the education minister. The Hans foundation has agreed to provide 60 percent budget for the proposed school. Amending the Uttarakhand subsidiary minerals regulations, 2001, the cabinet allowed the mineral picking up to 3 Mts or ground level of rivers.

 The cabinet also decided to review the decision of previous government to hand over 7.06 hectare of the land to a private residential school in Nainisar in Almora district. The development and use of the land in last five years would be investigated. The state cabinet also decided to bring ordnance which would empower it to shut down any slaughter house in the state.

It was also decided that the Indian Industries Association would act as a partner of state government for proposed wellness summit to be held in April.

The proposal to provide compensation to the unauthorised land holders in the National Highway (NH) broadening works. The cabinet also cleared the proposal for change of land use of agricultural land by the development authorities under the Uttar Pradesh Jamidari act.