Cabinet clears proposal to create rural jobs, better road infra in Ayodhya
LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government cleared 29 proposals at its cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Many of these proposals were aimed at boosting religious tourism by upgrading road network in Ayodhya and Mathura, while generating employment, especially in rural Uttar Pradesh (UP) where the ruling BJP recently swept the panchayat polls for the first time.
A 42-kilometre by-pass project – directly connecting Kaushambi to Prayagraj - was also cleared to improve connectivity with Kaushambi, where several archaeological remains of Buddhist period have been found and which the Yogi government wants to develop at par with other prominent Buddhist circuit sites like Sarnath, Kushinagar, Kapilvastu and Shravasti.
The government decided to create about 1.6 lakh jobs, two in each of the 58,189 gram panchayats in the state by appointing a computer operator and assistants who would work from panchayat bhawans or rural secretariat buildings which would be constructed at all those gram panchayats where such infrastructure doesn’t exist at the moment.
At present rural secretariat buildings exist in 33,577 panchayats and those requiring repair or renovation would be identified.
The salary that those appointed against these posts would get isn’t clear as yet, though UP cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh hinted that they could be paid Rs 6000 per month.
“I think this is what has been broadly suggested,” he said while briefing about the 29 proposals cleared by the state cabinet chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath at the Lok Bhawan on Wednesday evening.
These would be besides the 16000 sanctioned posts of village panchayat officers and village
development officers, of which only 10000 posts are currently filled.
“It will be mandatory to employ local people to work in these rural secretariats as this would aid the objective of boosting village economy through job creation,” Singh said.
“The chief minister has set a six-month deadline for completing this process in rural UP,” Sidharth Nath said.
The rural projection completion deadline is timed just around when 2022 UP polls are expected.
The state government has already rolled out ‘Mission employment’ in the state under which all vacancies in the government departments are being filled. Before the cabinet meeting, Adityanath had handed over recruitment letters to 130 youths who were appointed as excise inspectors.
40 L POOR ADDED TO FREE MEDICAL INSURANCE SCHEME
The state government has decided to include 40 lakh Antyodaya ration card holders – meant for unemployed, women and elderly – under the Mukhyamantri Arogya Yojana, the chief minister’s free medical insurance scheme that provides for up to Rs 5 lakh free insurance cover and is modelled to cover those left out of a similar scheme announced by the centre.
PROJECT CURTAILED TO CHECK FELLING OF TREES
A road widening project in Mathura had been curtailed from a four- lane to a two-lane one due to environmental concerns, the state government indicated.
“An 82-km four-lane project, for which Rs 505.72 crore had been sanctioned and which was aimed at decongesting Kosi, Nandgaon, Barsana and Govardhan route has now been changed to a two-lane one as that project meant 12,982 trees had to be felled,” Sidharth Nath said.
“As per existing norms, such felling has to be compensated by carrying out ten times more plantation.
To do that you also require enough land and hence keeping environmental concerns in mind, it has been decided to downsize the four-lane road widening project in Mathura into a two-lane one,” he said.
The minister said, “Trees would still be felled but comparatively a lot lesser as the downsized road widening project would now require 1966 trees to be felled.”
The road widening project has been undertaken with an eye on facilitating the movement of international tourists to such places in Mathura which are associated with Lord Krishna’s childhood and are a part of what the minister described as “baal leela of Krishna.”