The State Cabinet on Friday took various decisions, including waiver of water tax on select sections of society, payment of compensation to disaster affected traders for the commodities they lost and approval to launch the Uttarakhand State Food Security Scheme.
Briefing the media about the Cabinet decisions, Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar informed that for the financial year 2014-15, the 2.61 lakh people using 52,210 public water stand posts and nearly two lakh people with one and two domestic connections in rural areas will be exempt from water tax along with water connection holders in urban areas paying upto Rs 360 and between Rs 361 and Rs 2,000 bill, while 50 per cent water tax will be waived off for 92,000 consumers. The State will launch the Uttarakhand State Food Security Scheme for people with annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh who have not been covered by the National Food Security Scheme. The NFSS will be launched in entirety from July 2014. A Rs 100 crore corpus fund will be formed for established a traditional crafts institution in Bageshwar while 100 new industrial areas — 70 in mountainous areas and 30 in plains — will be developed for MSMEs.
The MSMEs in plains will be given 20 per cent price preference while such enterprises in notified industrial areas in the mountains will be given 30 per cent price preference. MSMEs will also be given relaxation in earnest money. The compensation rate for agriculture land damaged in disaster or swept away by flood has been doubled to Rs 5,000 per nali. Doctors will have to mandatorily work for their first two years in mountainous areas after which they can opt for posting in accessible areas and they will be given special allowance if they continue to serve in the mountains after the first two years. Rajiv Gandhi sports stadiums will be constructed in each development block of the State. Electricity consumers who pay their bill by July 31, 2014 will be exempt from surcharge while a policy has been formed to shift high tension power lines passing above buildings. For this, 40 per cent of the expenditure will be provided from the MP/MlA fund, 30 per cent by State government and 30 per cent by the beneficiary. Those employed on contract basis on BEd, TET, Shiksha Mitra and Shiksha Acharya posts will be regularised. The shopkeepers and businessmen who lost the commodities in their business premises during disaster between Tilwada and Kedarnath will be compensated for this according to their categorisation. The grade pay of revenue inspectors and lekhpals has been increased while Patwaris will receive a separate honorarium for police work.