The newly-appointed ministers who took oath of office and secrecy at Rajbhavan on Wednesday morning were distributed portfolios by Chief Minister Raman Singh in his first Cabinet meeting held at his residence after taking over as the Chief Minister for the third time in Chhattisgarh.
The Chief Minister after taking oath of office had taken a set of key decisions based on the announcements made in the BJP’s Assembly poll manifesto for their immediate implementation. The announcements were ratified by the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues in the meeting.
At first the Cabinet ratified the procedure for distribution of rice at Rs 1 per kg to around 48 lakh blue coloured ration card holders from poor families effective from January 1, 2014. The other announcements ratified at the meeting were conversion of forest villages into ‘revenue villages’, handing over of complete responsibility for Mid Day meal scheme management in the rural areas to the Women Self Help Groups (SHGs).
As per the Cabinet decision, the responsibility of managing the Mid Day meal schemes in a total of 47,979 primary and middle schools had been handed over to women SHGs. This apart, the SHGs were also handed over the responsibility for distribution of 'Ready to Eat' meals at 50,311 Anganwadi centres which was ratified by the Cabinet members.
The Chief Minister also announced handing over the responsibility of preparation and distribution of uniforms for primary and middle school children . The Cabinet also ratified the decision to launch an insurance scheme for farm labourers on the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee falling on December 25, 2013.
Similarly, the Cabinet members also ratified the decision on Government purchase of non nationalised Small forest produce such as ‘Imli, Chiraunji, Mahua seeds, lakh and Kosa.