Festive bonanza for state government employees

DEHRADUN

: Ushering in festivities,

Uttarakhand Cabinet

on Thursday approved a number a slew of measures for state government employees, including approval of benefits under seventh pay commission to some corporations, 180-day maternity leave for women adopting a child, payment of 50 per cent of arrears from January 1 to December 31, 2016 to employees and a 1% increase in the dearness allowances from July 1, 2017.

The

Cabinet

has also approved district level development authorities at Nainital, Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar. A committee has been constituted to look into the commercial activities of the other nine districts. The committee would be headed by parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Pant and will also have Kaushik, forest minister Harak Singh Rawat and agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal on board.

The cabinet has reversed the decision of the previous Congress government under which an agreement for the sale of land (before the registry) could be done on an Rs 1,000 stamp paper. Now the agreement would be done on a stamp paper worth 2% of the total amount.

Urban development minister and state government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said, “Till now there was maternity leave for women giving birth to a child. But now on a 180-day leave to women adopting a child has been sanctioned.”

The Cabinet has also approved a 1% increase in dearness allowance from July 1, 2017. “Earlier, a dearness allowance of 4% was given, which now has been raised to 5 per cent,” the minister said. The move is likely to put a burden of Rs 12 crore on the state exchequer.

Arrears of 50% have also been sanctioned under the seventh pay commission for 2016. “An amount of Rs 600 crore is required to clear the arrears, we will try to pay the remaining arrears at the earliest,” Kaushik said.

Employees of various corporations had threatened a strike if their demand for salary as per the provisions of seventh pay commission was not approved. The government has given a green signal to the benefits of seventh pay commission to employees of

Uttarakhand

Transport Corporation, SIDCUL and Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce Marketing Board. “Over 400 employees of Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce Marketing Board, 57 of SIDCUL and 4,000 employees of UTC will benefit from the decision,” he said.

The Congress government’s decision to introduce an agreement paper on Rs 1,000 stamp paper has also been quashed. “For this state has incurred a loss of Rs 73 crore and we decided to reverse the decision,” he added.

The Cabinet has also decided to extend the jurisdiction of Nandprayag Nagar Panchayat and Rishikesh Nagar Palika Parishad. The land conversion charge for construction of SDRF office at Jolly Grant for which land conversion of forest land was required has been waived off by the state cabinet. In addition, the transplantation charges on wood used for construction and river bed material has been raised from Rs 15 per ton to Rs 50 per ton.