Several key decisions taken by Assam Cabinet

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government held a Cabinet meeting on Saturday and took several important decisions. The meeting also constituted a committee headed by Chandra Mohan Patowary to review implementation of the decisions taken at the previous Cabinet meetings of the incumbent government.

Briefing the media after the meeting held at Tezpur, Chief Minister Sarma said that Cabinet today accorded approval to 1,037 pending land allotment proposals. Some of these proposals had been pending since as far back as 1992, he said. Sarma said that in order to provide some relief to old applicants, the current land premium rate will not be applicable to all. Instead, each beneficiary will have to pay the land premium which was applicable on the date on which the proposal concerned was approved by the district authority. He informed that several land allotment proposals submitted by NGOs are also pending and these will be disposed of at the next Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet also gave approval to utilization of a part of tea garden land for other agriculture-based activity, including solar plants, the Chief Minister said. The permission will be applicable to 5 per cent of the total area of the tea garden concerned. However, he said, the alternate activity will have to be carried out by the tea garden management and no lease system will be permissible in this regard.

Sarma said that for the power sector the Cabinet approved a corpus Rs 263 crore as state share of a Rs 8,727 crore project for installing new smart meters, transformers, protected power cables etc. The project will be executed by the APDCL under the 'Reforms & Distribution Sector' scheme.

The Chief Minister further informed that the Government has set up a joint venture company with NLC India Ltd for executing a 1,000 MW solar power project in the State with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. A plot of 5,000 bighas of land has been already identified for the purpose in Dima Hasao, he said.

Sarma said that the Cabinet also approved a rolling fund of Rs 350 crore for implementation of an 'Amrit Sarovar' project across the State. It also approved Rs 134 crore for converting the Jorhat Jail into a memorial park. An amount of Rs 149 crore was also approved for a memorial - including a giant statue - dedicated to Lachit Borphukan at Hulungapar in the Jorhat district.

The Chief Minister informed that the Cabinet approved an amount of Rs 343 crore for construction of a bridge over the river Ghunasuti to connect Lakhimpur and Dhakuakhana. An amount of Rs 108 crore was also approved for the second phase of the project for development and beautification of the Borduwa Than. A project worth Rs 185 crore was also approved for construction of a world-class 5,000-seater auditorium in Guwahati.

The Cabinet further decided to constitute an Assam Municipal Service on the lines of the Assam Civil Service, the Chief Minister added.

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