Thursday, 22 February 2024 | PNS |DEHRADUN
Also endorses the draft of the general budget 2024-25 of the State
The State cabinet in its meeting held at the secretariat on Wednesday The cabinet approved the Jamrani dam and Song dam projects in its meeting. The Jamrani dam will be constructed on the Gaula river (10 km upstream of Kathgodam) in Nainital district at a cost of Rs 2584.10 crore. The Centre and State will share the cost of the project in a 90:10 ratio. The project aims to produce 63 million units of electricity and an additional irrigation facility would be available for 57,065 hectares of land from it. The project will also provide drinking water to the Haldwani city till the year 2055. The Song dam project is proposed on Song River in Dehradun district. The project will ensure 150 MLD drinking water by gravity to Dehradun city and peri-urban areas. The cabinet also endorsed the draft of the general budget 2024-25 of the State. The budget will be tabled, discussed and passed during the Assembly session slated to start in Dehradun from February 26. In another important decision, the cabinet approved the proposal to allow the benefit of the shelter fund to the builders engaged in construction of projects larger than 5,000 square metres. The builders will now have the option to deposit a fixed amount of money in the shelter fund instead of constructing houses for economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society. Till now the facility of shelter fund was available for buildings which are less than 5,000 square metres in area. The proposal to remove the restriction of height in the construction of the EWS project was also approved in the meeting.
The cabinet imposed a ban on boring (for extracting ground water) in the catchment area of rivers where the surface water of rivers is being used for drinking water purposes. The proposal to start lab on wheels for the students was also approved by the cabinet. The project initially will be launched in four districts and later will be extended in all the 13 districts. The Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree will now become compulsory for appointment as arts teacher in the government schools of the State. In a decision aimed to please the teachers the cabinet approved the proposal to give the facility of inter divisional transfer to the Lecturer Teachers (LTs) once in their service period. The cabinet decided to get the proposal of providing travel leave to the teachers examined by the finance and legal departments. Two amendments in the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) were also approved by the cabinet.
The cabinet also approved the proposal to give additional charge of vice chancellor when the post is vacant to another VC for a period of six months. In another important decision the cabinet amended the Gangster Act and brought offences of child labour, counterfeit currency, human trafficking and bonded labour under its purview.
The process of tender for purchase of equipment for the hospitals of the health department constructed in Badrinath and Kedarnath was also approved by the cabinet.
