The state Government makes a marginal hike

The state Government on Tuesday made a marginal hike of .25 per cent in VAT on petroleum leading to a 17 paise increase in prices of petrol and 11 paise of diesel in Uttar Pradesh. 

Besides, the Government cleared formation of ‘State Road Safety Council’ to check growing causalities in road mishaps and creation of ‘Urban Transport Modernisation Fund’ to facilitate better services in big cities while taking several other decisions to improve law and order.The Government also waived VAT on electronics goods in Army canteens.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that to check death of people in accidents on roads and national highways, the Government had decided to prepare a new road safety policy and re-constitute Road Safety Council. A decision to this effect was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Yadav here on Tuesday.

The Cabinet also decided to set up a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary and also a cell related to road safety in the Transport Commissioner’s office.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to the policy for starting air service in the state. The decision will promote tourism and regional air service.Under the police, all efforts will be made to ensure safety of the aircraft, and the appointment of pilots and other workers would be made as per the provisions made by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Government of India. 

The proposed new air link would boost tourism in Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Allahabad, lucknow, Chitrakoot, Moradabad, Kushinagar and other places. In another decision, the Cabinet approved the transfer policy for 2014-15. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has been authorised to make any amendment in the transfer policy. Under the new decision, a provision has been made for transfer of officials who have completed six and ten years respectively in districts and divisions. The transfer must be completed by July 15 this year.

To improve law and order, the Chief Minister withdraw his earlier order and re-invoked the Government Order issued on July 11, 1986 under which a constable or head constable cannot be posted in the district adjacent to his home town. Earlier, Yadav had facilitated posting of cops close to their home towns as over 50,000 policemen had been transferred to far places from their home town by the previous Bahujan Samaj Party Government. 

The BSP is of the view that a major law and order problem occurs when cops are posted adjacent to home districts as they use their clout in the native villages to terrorise the other party. The Cabinet also cleared new guidelines for sanction of projects under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Model. Under the new provisions, the Principal Secretary will head a committee which will decide PPP projects involving less than Rs 25 crore before forwarding it to the Government for further decision. 

For projects worth more than Rs 25 crore but less than Rs 100 crore, Principal Secretary of Infrastructure Development Department would head a committee comprising of principal secretaries if Finance, law, Planning and other departments concerned. For projects worth more than Rs 100 crore and less then Rs 1000 crore, the committee will be headed by Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner.