While speaking on the budget at the end of the discussion on it in the Assembly on Tuesday, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has announced a slew of his Government’s decisions- all meant to push up development both in the spheres of agriculture and industry and to boost up digitisation and improve the medical and educational facilities in the State. He said that the doctors among the ex-servicemen would be roped in to provide medical services at the state-run hospitals.
In deference to the MlAs’ demands, his government has decided to spike the amount meant for the MlA local area fund by Rs one crore per annum, fixing it at Rs 3.75 crore per annum from the earlier Rs 2.75 crore per annum. CM further announced that from now onwards, Uttarakhand residents would be entitled to get tender upto Rs five crore. While he was asked to make clear whether his government was mulling loan waivers for the farmers by the leader of the opposition Indira Hridayesh, he said his Government would announce things that it would execute on the ground.
While speaking of the now-raging NH-74 land acquisition scam, CM said that he had done what was required to be done to unearth the scam, while citing the suspension of the six officers, arrests of two of the accused, recommending a CBI inquiry and collection of all the official documents related to the scam to help investigation. “With CBI taking its time to decide, we are not sitting idle. An investigation is going on in full swing,” he said.
He also dwelt on the step his government has taken to ensure timely attendance of the government employees by introducing biometric attendance system in the secretariat. “It would be installed in all the offices in the coming days. “Besides, e-filing and CM desk are being put into place to ensure that the files can be tracked any given point of time. We would also do away with the obsolete and useless laws while laying thrust on e-procurement system,” he said.
He further assured that his government would soon roll out a policy for mining materials to keep their prices within the reach of the common people. “To improve the public distribution system, we are installing points of sale (POS) to maintain transparency. We would also provide the gram panchayats with computers,” he said.
Taking note of the point raised by the MlA Munna Singh Chouhan, asking the state government to spell out its stance on the special economic zone (SEZ), CM said that though the State presently has none his Government is all set to establish one here. “Two /three States do not have SEZ till now,” he added.
While lauding the Centre-envisaged start-up, he said that Uttarakhand is also doing well in ‘ease of doing business’. “We would soon establish a mega food park at Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district,” he said.
He announced that the Government would give the small farmers and those residing in the border areas loan to the tune of Rs one lakh loan at two percent interest rates. “This loan amount would help the farmers purchase live stock aside from going for fish farming and food processing to add to their incomes,” he said. He also announced that the people of the disaster- affected areas in the hills would be given compensation at par with the nyay panchayats levels. Earlier, such facility was available for the plains with the compensations for the hill people being given at par with the Tehsil level standard.
Besides, the Government would give soil health cards to all the farmers of the state. “Animal insurance scheme and cow progeny protection act are already in place,” he said. Through cooperative PACs, the government would promote micro ATM facility. Besides, a farmers’ commission would be set up to address the farmers’ grievances. Thirteen new tourist destinations would come up in 13 districts of the state. “We would establish culture village (sanskriti gram) at the airport and the railway station to help those who come to Dehradun on official works get an idea about what the State stands for,” CM said.
Rishikesh being known as a Yoga hub, the state government would develop a Yoga centre there. “We would develop it as a centre of spiritual tourism. We would promote home stay too,” he said.
He assured that the State Government is fully prepared to host the 38th National Sports slated in 2018. “Besides, the families which have left out of the Ujjawala scheme will be provided free of cost gas connection. On the health front, the State Government is developing a trauma centre in the government medical college at Haldwani. Besides, let me assure that there would be no doctors’ crunch in the State-run hospitals,” he said.
He further said that the State Government would address the needs of the unorganised sector labourers. “Besides, we would set up book banks to enable the poor children to avail them. Currently, the teacher / pupil ratio is 12:1 in the state-run schools while it is 25:1 in the private schools. The State-run schools remaining scattered, we would club them together to provide quality education to the future generation,” he said.
He announced that soon the registration of the vehicles would be made online in the state. While expressing concern over the depleting water level of the fabled Naini lake, he said that his Government has transferred the upkeep of the lake PWD to the Irrigation department. He further said that to address the economic offences, his Government would set up a record (Abhilekh) agency.