Extending relief to the power consumers, both domestic and commercial, the Yogi Government has decided to waive surcharge on the pending electricity bills as well as announced a short-term mining policy to ease scarcity of building material in UP. The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting held here on Tuesday.
Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that Cabinet has approved a proposal to waive off surcharge on the pending bills. Surcharge is 2 per cent of the bill per month and this will cost the State over
Rs5,000 crore, he said. Besides, the farmers who have a pending electric bill of over Rs10,000 can clear their bills in quarterly installments, he said and added that rostering schedule of providing 18 hour electricity in villages, 20 hour in tehsils and Bundelkhand regions and 24 hour in district headquarters should be followed in letter and in spirit. The Government will also sign the agreement with the Centre on April 14 on ‘Power for All’ so that people can get 24x7 electricity by October 2018.
The Government has approved a short-term policy on mining to end the scarcity of building material in the State. The DMs have been allowed to go for e-tendering to allocate a patta of 10 acres for mining. This is a short-term policy aimed at tiding over shortage of sand and other building materials, Sharma said. The Government also announced that transportation of mining produce would only be allowed with MM-11 permit in the State.
The Cabinet approved these proposals following suggestions from Group of Ministers headed by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. “This committee will give a long-term proposal which will be implemented after it is vetted by the State legislature,” he said.
Illegal mining was a major issue during the recently held Assembly elections with the BJP targeting previous Mining Minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati for promoting illegal mining. CBI also is investigating irregularities in the Mining Department on the directives of the Allahabad High Court.
The State Cabinet has approved that 85,943 km roads would be made pot-hole free by June 15 next. “Chief Minister Aditya Nath Yogi has instructed PWD officials to stick to schedule or get ready to face music. The directions are specific that roads should not get damaged during monsoon. Thereforefore, proper drainage system should be evolved,” Health Minister and Government spokesman Sidharthnath Singh said.
Against the total 2,25,825 kilometres of highways around 85,942 km of road is in bad shape and needs immediate repair.
In order to control deadly Japanese Encephalitis(JE) and Acute Encephalitis syndrome(AES) which is endemic in 37 districts the Government has prepared a strategy to counter this menace. “Already officials had held video-conferencing with CMOs asking them to get ready to combat this deadly disease. Doctors of all the Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres would go for a training at the BRD Medical college hospital in Gorakhpur,” Singh said.
He said fogging has already started in the affected areas while 10 beds have been increased in all the district hospitals for the JE and AES patients. Ministers and officials have been asked to visit disease prone areas to monitor the preventive measures, he said.
The CM also instructed the concerned department to monitor drinking water facilities during the summer season. State minister Mahendra Singh has been asked to visit Bundelkhand region to review the supply of drinking water.