Himachal govt assures 120-day employment to urban poor, liquor vends to open in state from tomorrow
SHIMLA: In a bid to revive the economy, the Himachal government has announced to waive off electricity bills of hotels registered with the tourism department and decided to start a scheme guaranteeing 120 days assured employment to the urban poor besides some relief for agriculturists and fruit growers.
The decision was taken during the cabinet meeting, chaired by chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, on Saturday.
CM constituted a three-member cabinet subcommittee headed by jal shakti minister Mahender Singh seeking measures for the economic revival of the state. The other two members are education minister Suresh Bhardwaj, industries minister
Bikram Singh and forest minister Govind Thakur.The sub-committee will submit its report in the next two weeks, Bhardwaj said.
The cabinet gave approval for 120 days assured employment to the urban poor under the new Mukhya Mantri Shahari Rojgar Guarantee Yojana. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, agriculturists and horticulturists of the state have been facing huge losses. Therefore, the government had decided to compensate them to some extent.
The also allowed liquor vends to operate in the state from May 4. It was also decided to give postfacto approval for the extension of Excise Policy, 2019-20. The cabinet also gave its nod to post-facto approval of extension of Toll Policy 2019-20 up to May 31.
The cabinet also decided to waive electricity demand charges of hotels for six months, thereby providing them relief of about ₹15 crore. Similarly, excise and taxation license fee will be waived, and lifting quota of bars would be on pro-rata basis.
In addition to this, token tax and special road tax would be waived for four months
CURFEW HOURS RELAXED BY ONE HOUR FROM 10 AM TO 3 PM; THE CABINET ALSO ANNOUNCED ELECTRICITY BILL WAIVER FOR HOTELS
30% ATTENDANCE IN GOVERNMENT OFFICES
Government offices will have 30% attendance from May 4 onward. The cabinet authorised the head of departments to prepare a list of employees. Besides it also extended curfew relaxation hours for another one hour. The curfew will now be relaxed from 10 am to 3 pm. However, it decided not to ply busses in the state till further orders.