Considering the situations caused by Covid-19 and to expedite the remaining works for the Kumbh Mela 2021 in Haridwar, the State cabinet has approved four decisions in its meeting held on Friday. Informing the media about these decisions, cabinet minister and State government spokesman Madan Kaushik said that the decision taken by the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to authorise the Kumbh Mela officer and Garhwal commissioner to approve works costing upto Rs two crore and Rs five crore respectively was approved by the cabinet. The cabinet also decided to grant the Kumbh Mela officer the authority to increase approved works by 50 per cent. In addition to this, the cabinet also granted its approval to make the tender process period seven days and to split work projects in two parts.
Kaushik informed that a total of 15 decisions were taken by the cabinet in its meeting. He informed that there are 155 teachers in the Sanskrit Education department teaching at various levels from school to college. For teachers in managerial positions and who have been teaching continuously for five years the cabinet approved Rs 15,000 per month, Rs 25,000 per month for teachers who have been teaching for five to 10 years and Rs 30,000 per month for teachers who have been teaching for more than 10 years. Further, according to University Grants Commission standards, any of these teachers who have done MPhil or PHd will be paid an additional Rs 5,000 allowance. The cabinet also approved 0.206 hectare land at Ranikhet in Chaukhutia block of Almora district for establishing a Kendriya Vidyalaya. Kaushik further informed that 22,492 pre-matric scheduled caste students got less scholarship amount during 2017-18 and 2018-19 as the funds were not received. The cabinet approved Rs 3.79 crore from the State budget to pay the remaining scholarship amount to these students. Similarly, a sum of Rs 4.36 crore was approved to pay the remaining scholarship amount to about 20,000 other backward classes students. The cabinet also approved the creation of six technical posts in the engineering wing of the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board. The Uttarakhand drug control service manual was also promulgated. The minister further informed that from the list of 21 organisations working as executing agencies for various state government departments, the cabinet approved the removal of Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam and the Uttar Pradesh Samaj Kalyan Nirman Nigam. Further, the work capacity of the Rural Engineering Services has been increased from Rs five crore to Rs 15 crore. In another decision, the cabinet gave its approval to the firm CAMP to operate 132 of the 140 ambulances handed over to the state during the Covid pandemic. The operation of the ambulances which will also be used during the Kumbh Mela was handed over as per the 2018 rates. In addition to this, the cabinet also approved allocation of 4.384 hectare land of the irrigation department in Haridwar to facilitate Bhu Samadhi for deceased members of the religious fraternity.
Saturday, 23 January 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
