Himachal Cabinet Reduces Route Permit Taxes For Generating Rural Transport Jobs

By: Ravinder Makhaik

[lang_en]Shimla: The Himachal cabinet on Wednesday decided to reduce taxes on route permits for unemployed youth for generating employment avenues, carry out rain damage repairs to roads and water schemes on priority and approved changes to government school timings from 1 September.

Presided over by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the cabinet gave its nod for the ‘Him Gramin Parivahan Swarojgar Yojna’ Scheme that proposes to generating self-employment avenues in the transport services sector. Tax concessions by as much as 85 percent have been reduced for route permit taxes for vehicles that ply in rural areas, said a cabinet spokesman.

The Scheme will help in making improved transport services available to the rural commuters at their door steps and also provide unemployed youth income generating avenues through self employment, he added.

The cabinet asked the revenue department to compile a rain damage report which could be submitted to the centre at the earliest to get funds released. Giving priority to road repairs, an amount of Rs 105 crore had been released for the purpose over three months, the spokesman said.

Approval was given for requisitioning services of a expert consultant to promote clean development mechanism (CDM) culture and reduce the affect of the green house gases.

The cabinet changed school timings for government schools from 1 September to 9AM to 3PM for Summer Closing Schools and 10AM to 4 PM for Winter Closing Schools that would be applicable throughout the year in future.

The cabinet approved institution of ‘Prerna Strot Samman Puruskar’ award to the persons and organizations that contribute significantly in their public and private life for philanthropy. While an NGO would be given a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakhs, an individual the prize has been fixed at Rs 51,000. These awards are to be presented on Himachal Day, each year.

The cabinet also approved an innovative 500 KW generation plant to a cooperative society that would use water reclaimed from the sewerage treatments plants of Shimla town.

To contain the exploding simian population in the state the government sanctioned two posts of veterinarians for the monkey sterilization centres at Satsar in Hamirpur and Gopalpur in Kangra.

The cabinet approved reducing VAT from 12.5 to 4 percent on wood free boards manufacturing units to promote forest resources, said the cabinet spokesman.[/lang_en]