More than 1.60 Lakh employees of the Uttarakhand government would soon get the Diwali bonus. The Uttarakhand cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday authorised the chief minister Puskar Singh Dhami to take a decision on bonus and four per cent increase in the Dearness Allowance (DA). In the meeting of the State cabinet chaired by the CM Dhami on the day a total of 26 issues came up for discussion. The cabinet approved 24 issues.
The cabinet decided to increase the share of the State Roads Safety fund in the compounding fee of the vehicles from existing 25 per cent to 30 per cent. It also decided to increase the relief fund in accidents from one Lakh to two Lakh. In another decision ,the State cabinet approved the proposal to create 143 new posts of the special educators (teachers) under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). These teachers impart education to Divyang students and at present the education department has only 47 special educators. In an anomaly correction, the cabinet substantially reduced the land use change upgradation fee for petrol pumps from existing 75 per cent to 7.5 per cent and 15 per cent in the rural and urban areas respectively. The cabinet also approved the proposal for Uttarakhand Assets sales purchase regulation as per the norms of the government of India. Under the horticulture mission the state government has decided to provide an additional subsidy of 25 per cent in addition to the 50 per cent subsidy granted by the union government for anti hail net for the farmers. In another significant decision the State cabinet approved the proposal to increase the grant given to the SC and ST families under the Atal Awas Yojana and make it at par with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. These families would now get Rs 1.30 lakh and 1.20 lakh in the mountainous and plain areas respectively. The cabinet also approved the Logistics policy -2022 to reduce the transportation cost for giving an impetus to the industrial development in the State. In another significant decision the cabinet removed the provision of imprisonment under the Uttarakhand anti littering and anti spitting act. However the provision of a fine of Rs 5000 has been kept intact under the act.
On the recommendation of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights the Uttarakhand cabinet approved the proposal to reduce the cessation of the facilities to the children from existing 60 days of continued absenteeism from school to 30 days. The ACS said that the decision has been taken to reduce dropout rate from the schools.
A cabinet gave its nod to the Skill development department to constitute a separate outsourcing agency apart from the Uttarakhand Purva sainik kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL).