In a bid to promote education especially in the hills, the Harish Rawat Government has decided to give some relaxation to entrepreneurs for opening up institutions in the hills. The policy name would be Hilly Area Promotion of Private Capital Investment in education sectors in the hills. Besides, to check illegal mining, which keeps happening under the disguise of storage of construction materials on private lands, the Cabinet has plugged the loopholes.
To increase sources of revenue, the cabinet has also decided to revise the circle rate of the State. Earlier, it was being revised by the State every three years, but now the Government would revise circle rate by September 1 every year. This was disclosed by the chief secretary Subhash Kumar after a Cabinet meeting in secretariat on Tuesday evening. The earlier procedure to buy lands for running institutions being too cumbersome, most of the entrepreneurs used to get exhausted midway.
They were supposed to buy land 7.5 acres on the minimum to open institution and the Government was charging Rs 10 lakh as processing fee. Now, the Cabinet has eased the procedure so that they (entrepreneurs) will get permission to buy a land within three months and the land use will get changed automatically once they buy the piece of land. Now, the bar for land has been lowered to five acres.
To check illegal construction and promote planned development in Haridwar district, the Cabinet has increased the jurisdictional area of Haridwar Development Authority (HDA) because now Roorkee would come under HDA. Now onwards, HDA would be known as Haridwar Roorkee Development Authority (HRDA). Manglore Municipality, landhora Municipality and Jong village have been included in it as well.
To check illegal mining, the Cabinet has decided that from now onwards, no outsider (who lives or runs stone crusher outside the State) can take permission for storage of construction materials in the State. Such things keep happening in three districts — Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. Earlier, they used to take permission for storage and procured the materials from the mining mafia.
Now they will have to seek permission from the State Government but no outsider can procure permission for storage. The Cabinet has also eased the mining on private lands. Now if a person wants to remove soil from his land for making basement or to level the land he can do so without seeking prior permission from the state. However, if he sells the excavated soil he will have to take permission from the state. They though can do mining of soil for their personnel consumption like leveling of land.
The Cabinet has also approved the restructuring plan involving the finance department with immediate effect. As per the new structure, the finance department would have 188 persons. The Cabinet has also given grade pay of Rs 10,000 to PWD, Irrigation, Health & family welfare and Pantnagar University finance controller. Now they would create department accounts directorate, it is learnt. They can draw their GPF and Pension from their nearby treasury. Earlier, they had to depend upon the state treasury.
The Cabinet has also decided to take up the matter with the Union Government. In a bid to open the char dham yatra route, which was being taken care by the BRO or NHAI, on time, the State Government had spent Rs 37 crore hoping that they would get the amount back from BRO. Now BRO has refused to pay the amount to the state government, forcing the Cabinet to approach the Union Government.
The Cabinet has also approved public service commission (PCS) Uttarakhand annual report, which will be tabled in the upcoming Bidhan Sabha session. The Cabinet has also approved traffic police demand. They are supposed to spend 75 percent of the money they collect from the violators of the traffic norms through challan, on traffic improvement and the remaining 25 percent, for police welfare schemes. As per the Constitution, no money can be withdrawn without making budgetary provision in the state Assembly. The Cabinet has thus constituted two monitoring committees- one to be led by the principal secretary, Home and the other by DGP of Police. Now they will get budgetary provisions as per their demand.
Moreover, the Cabinet has also waived off stamp duty on transfer of private land to the institute or government office. Earlier, if the state government was giving land to an institute the latter was entitled to the stamp duty relaxation. But now any one can donate their land to the institution and will get complete rebate on stamp duty.
The Cabinet has also approved sub- inspectors’ recruitment. Now, the examination will be conducted by the Pantnagar University. The Cabinet has also raised the emolument of polytechnique institutes. Now the guest faculty will get Rs 30000 Per month (PM), the workshop instructor will get Rs 20000 PM and the computer operator will get Rs 10000 PM. The Cabinet has also approved employee Welfare Corporation, which will run canteen on the pattern of CSD. The Cabinet has also revised the salary of contractual teachers, who were regularised by the state on 2010. They will get Rs 35000 per month from September 1, 2014.