The State Cabinet on Thursday gave administrative approval to Rs 1169.28 crore project to supply water for irrigation and other purposes to arid areas of Garhwa district in the State. The project will provide irrigation facilities to 14,249 hectares of farmland and give drinking water to 3.28 lakh people in the initial phase.
Giving details of the decision, Additional Chief Secretary of Water Resources Department AK Singh said that under the project water will be lifted from 3 sites from Sone and Kanhar and will be supplied to various areas of Garhwa district.
“The total length of the pipeline in the project is 270 Kms. And, the piped water will be brought pipeline under six feet of the soil. This way the farmers can do cultivation on their fields despite the water pipe going under their farmland. The project is being implemented under Jharkhand Water Gas and Drainage Pipeline Act 2018,” said Singh.
The Additional CS further said that the project will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Naredra Modi during his visit to Palamu for Mandal Dam stone laying ceremony on January 5. The project will initially be implemented for Grahwa but will later be extended to Palamu and other districts also, he added.
In another important decision, the Cabinet approved Mukhyamantri Sukanya Yojna to benefit more than 36.57 lakh families of the State. Secretary of Women and Child Development and Social Security department Amitabh Kaushal said that the ambitious scheme is aimed at empowering women, encouraging girl child education and putting an end to child marriage in Jharkhand.
The Secretary further informed that under SECC-2011(Rural) 27,46,106 beneficiaries and all Antyoday Ration Card holders (9,11,217 people) will get benefits of the scheme. A total of 36,57,323 families will get the benefit of the scheme, he said.
Under the scheme a girl child under two years of age will get Rs 5,000, while a girl child taking admission in class one will get Rs 5,000. After passing class 5 she will get Rs 5,000 and later when she passes class eight, class 10 and class 12 she will get Rs 5,000 each every time. An unmarried girl child between the age of 18 and 20 will get financial aid of Rs 10,000.
The Cabinet also approved the scheme to provide mobile phones to the farmers of the State in the financial year 2018-19. Department Secretary Pooja Singhal said that in the first phase about 22,000 farmers, who are registered with ENAM will get mobile phones. In the later phases all 28 lakh farmers will get mobile phones. For the first phase provision of Rs 4.32 crore has been made to provide mobile phones to the farmers.
The Cabinet also gave post sanction to Jharkhand Reservation in Posts and Services (For ST, SC and Backward classes) Amendment Bill 2018. It also approved Transportation Allowance to Divyang persons of special category in the wake of Jharkhand High Court order. The Cabinet also gave post sanction to the culmination of Winter Session of State Assembly that ended on December 27, 2018.