The Jharkhand Government on Friday approved a onetime settlement proposal for such rural consumers of electricity department who have not paid the Government against the electricity consumed by them.
The decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Under the decision taken consumers will have the liberty to submit the bill in four installments and each installment must be 25 per cent of the total amount of the original bill.
In such cases the Government will not charge a delayed payment surcharge from the consumers. But such cases where the consumer is facing FIR in the power theft case or penalised by the department for wrongdoings, one time settlement will not be applicable.
The Government took this decision as rural areas of Jharkhand have been severely hit due to economic slowdown caused by Covid-19 hence many people may not be able to pay the bill.
The Cabinet paved the way for floating solar panels to tap alternative sources of energy. Floating solar panels are placed on water bodies and panels are connected to the supply grid. The Cabinet approved a proposal of the energy department to set up a 100 MW capacity floating solar plant in the Geltasud reservoir of Ranchi in the first phase under National Solar Mission 2010.
The Cabinet discussed and approved 33 agenda of departments. In another important decision the Government withdrew its hand from wholesale purchase and distribution of wine in Jharkhand. Now it has been left to private players and companies to carry wholesale purchase and distribution of wine. Earlier this was done by Jharkhand State Beverage Corporation Limited. It was formed in November 2010. Notably, the previous BJP-AJSU Party government headed by Raghubar Das had taken a decision to open Government run wine shops and private wine shops were closed. The decision was however changed in April 2019.
In another development, the Government decided to hike the pay for mid-day meal kitchen assistants by Rs 500 per month. Jharkhand has 79,551 kitchen assistants who will now get Rs 2,000 per month. The Cabinet also approved Rs 39.79 crore for the revised payment. This is the second occasion when their pay was revised. In the previous Government a hike of Rs 500 was made.
Under the Central sponsored scheme, kitchen assistants get Rs 1,000 per month for 10 months a year. 60 per cent of the payment is given by the Central Government and the rest by the State Government.
The Cabinet endorsed the demand for inclusion of Domra caste in the Scheduled Caste category. The recommendation for inclusion has been sent to the Central Government following the Cabinet’s decision.