Take call on 30% quota for women: Uttarakhand cabinet to CM Pushkar Singh Dhami

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand cabinet, after meeting on Wednesday, authorised chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to take a call on bringing an ordinance on 30% domicile-based horizontal reservation for women in government jobs.
The high court, on August 24 this year, stayed the state government order of July 24, 2006, that allowed 30% horizontal reservation to women in Uttarakhand Public Service Commission.
Following this, the Dhami government knocked the doors of the apex court and the government is all set to bring an ordinance on the domicile-based reservation for women.
Meanwhile, the cabinet took a similar stand on providing Dearness Allowance and bonus to employees before Diwali. The state government employees were hopeful of getting a Dearness Allowance and bonus announced in the cabinet meeting. "The cabinet has given the power to the CM to take a call on the issue," secretary to CM, Shailesh Bagauli said.
The cabinet also gave its nod to a tourism department proposal, which recommends compensation to be given to owners of rooms that are to be demolished for development works in and around the Kedarnath area. "Till now around 53 rooms have been demolished and another 947 rooms are to be brought down for the development works to be carried out as per the Kedarnath master plan," added Bagauli.
Earlier, under the Anti-Littering and Anti-Spitting Act 2016, there was a Rs 5,000 fine or six-month jail or both for people found spitting and littering in the open for the first time.
The cabinet has cancelled the jail term and approved a proposal to raise the penalty amount further for first-time offenders. The cabinet has also approved a transport department proposal to increase the ex-gratia given to the next of kin of people killed in accidents involving taxis and buses, from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. The cabinet has increased the insurance amount of traders registered with the state tax department from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Under the Atal Awas Yojna, the financial assistance given to SC and ST families has been raised to Rs 1.20 lakh in the plains and Rs 1.30 lakh in the hills. The amount earlier was Rs 35,000 and Rs 38,000 respectively. The eligibility criteria for the scheme has been raised from an annual earning of Rs 32,000 to Rs 48,000. Each year, 25% of the compounding fees of the transport department was given to the State Road Safety Cell and the amount was used for road safety. The amount has been increased by the cabinet to 30%. The cabinet also gave a nod to Uttarakhand logistics policy, which is aimed to bring down transportation costs.