The cabinet in course of its meeting has taken a string of decisions, including one meant to boost education by reducing the financial burden of the parents for the education of their wards. In an important decision, the cabinet has announced that from now onwards, the schools based in the state except ICSE schools would prescribe only NCERT books for the students of class 1-12. This would end the system of the school managements introducing new books of new publishers which are found to be full of errors, the state government claimed. This would spare the parents the compulsion of buying such books which are generally expensive.
The Cabinet has also approved creation of clerical posts, including senior administrative officer, administrative officer, chief assistant, senior assistant and junior assistant. Besides, the Cabinet has approved Uttarakhand jail department clerical grade service rule-2017. The State Government hopes that the decision would help the jails tide over the staff crunch plaguing their functioning.
Cabinet has also cleared the administrative expenses concerning the arson that happened in Udham Singh Nagar district on January 28, 2004 in which property worth Rs 1.66 lakh was lost.
Besides, as per the cabinet decision, Government Soban Singh Jeena Medical Science & Research Institute Almora which would start education session following the nod from Medical Council of India (MCI) would enrol 100 students for MBBS, to begin with. To speed things up, the cabinet has approved the posts as per the requirement. It is learnt that five posts, including principal/D-01, personal assistant 01, storekeeper cum clerk, computer operator/record clerk-01 and driver, would be recruited through outsourcing. Notably, MCI has approved 606 staff- faculty-183, nursing staff-247 and ancillary staff-176 for the establishment of the institute. Eighteen more posts being added as per the cabinet decision, the number of posts has risen up to 624.
The Cabinet has approved the proposal of using muck/manure of THDCIl PSP plants for the construction of helipads. To make things smoother for them, the plants have been exempted from GST payment up to the limit of 90000 cubic meters of muck/manure to be used for constructing helipads.
The cabinet has also given its in- principle approval for the creation of Uttarakhand state centre for public policy and good governance. This aside, the cabinet has approved service rule-2017 of Uttarakhand state record group A & B. Uttarakhand prantiyal rakshak dal kalyan kosh rule-2017 has been approved too after some amendments were incorporated in Uttarakhand prantiyal rakshak dal kalyan kosh rule-2005.
Furthermore, the cabinet has waived off VAT to the tune of Rs 66.52 lakh due from Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) academy based in Srinagar Garhwal for the liquor sold in the SSB-run canteens. Cabinet has also approved a policy for the labourers working in the shops and the establishment. The cabinet has also approved the extension of the jurisdictional area of Rudrapur Municipal Corporation. From now, areas in the plains having population more than one lakh can be considered as urban.