Bihar ministers to get more funds for furnishing their offices

PATNA: Now the cabinet ministers can spend up to Rs six lakh to upkeep and furnishing their offices both - in the secretariat and their office in residential premises. This was okayed in the state cabinet meeting held here on Friday under the chairmanship of CM Nitish Kumar. In total 41 cabinet agendas were cleared on Friday.

Talking to reporters here soon after the cabinet meeting principal secretary of the cabinet secretariat department Brajesh Mehrotra said earlier the amount was Rs 1.5 lakh for cabinet ministers which was effective since 1997 for a full tenure of five years. Similarly, Rs five lakh limit would now be for state ministers and Rs 4 lakh for deputy ministers. The said amount would be mainly spend on the maintenance and furnishing of their both the offices.

In another major decision, the cabinet sanctioned a total amount of Rs 885.67 crore for the salary payment of total 33,746 school teachers including 22,587 for secondary teachers. This amount will also include the salary payment of 1886 chief librarians for the 2016-17 financial year.

The cabinet also okayed the dismissal of eight government doctors for their unauthorised leave for five years. These doctors are Dr Leela Sinha, the then medical office, primary health centre (PHC) Goh in Aurangabad, Dr Nikhil Kumar Rohtagi, the then medical officer PHC Imamganj Gaya, Dr Navin Kumar medical officer PHC, Barachatti Gaya, Dr Devendra Kumar Singh, medical officer additional PHC Baijalpur, Asarganj in Munger district, Raghvendra Jha medical officer PHC Kameshwar Nagar, Samastipur, Dr Manjunath, medical officer sub divisional officer, Rosera, Samastipur, Dr Braj Kishore Prasad, medical officer additional PHC, Narhan in Samastipur and Dr Jayshree Sinha, medical officer, sub divisional officer, Rosera, Samastipur.

Besides government doctors, the cabinet also okayed the dismissal of Sudhir K Jha the then excise superintendent Aurangabad currently in Kaimur. The cabinet also okayed the proposal of the public health and engineering department to dismiss the then executive engineer PHED Nageshwar Sharma Samastipur (currently under suspension) in a DA case. Sharma will not entitled to get his pension, said Mehrotra .

To tackle the current spell of floods in different districts of Bihar, the cabinet okayed the proposal of the disaster management department to release in advance Rs 315 crore from Bihar state contingency fund.

For the effective training of school teachers, cabinet okayed the proposal to construct eight new teachers education colleges and five new district education training institutes with a total estimated cost of Rs 181 crore. This project is world bank aided under its ‘enhancing teacher effectiveness in Bihar’ in the current financial year.

In addition 185 block resource centres would also be constructed at a cost of Rs 162.78 crore for effective training of teachers under the WB aided project.

For the effective functioning of trauma centre in Bikram in Patna district, cabinet okayed the proposal of the health department to create total 66 posts including 26 specialist doctors, six medical officers and 34 various non clinical posts.

The cabinet sanctioned a total sum of Rs 40.40 crore including Rs 23.12 crore from Centre for the police moderation scheme for the current financial year. The cabinet okayed a total sum of Rs 243.90 crore for the strengthening, widening and repairing various roads in Vaishali and Saran districts.

The cabinet okayed the creation of total 334 posts in the Patna high court in various cadres. The cabinet also cleared the proposal of the law department for the construction of 24 court rooms and ‘haazat’ in Gopalganj district court at the estimated cost of Rs 33.63 crore, 15 court rooms and ‘haazat’ in Bettiah (Rs 28.45 crore) and 15 court room and ‘haazat’ in Bagaha in West Champaran (Rs 30.10 crore).