Shimla: To enable the traditional weavers community to access better health facilities, the Himachal cabinet today decided to enhance cover under health insurance cover for handloom weavers under Handloom Weaver Comprehensive Welfare Scheme.
The beneficiary weaver shall be eligible to spend upto Rs 7,500 per annum on their treatment in any of the hospitals or clinics, as outdoor patient, while as indoor patient, in any of the enlisted hospitals of the State Government the upper limit would be Rs 15,000 per annum, a cabinet spokesman stated.
Beneficiaries would only need to contribute Rs 95.20 as annual premium for availing health insurance cover while the rest of the premium shall be borne by the state, he added.
Presided over by the chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal the increased health cover decision of the cabinet would benefit about 16,000 weaver families across Himachal in the current year.
Weeklong Winter session from December 14
Cabinet decided to recommend convening a week long Winter Session of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly at Dharamshala from December 14 to 21, 2009.
Approval for revised guidelines for setting up of universities in the private sector as per the amended guidelines was accorded.
Riverbeds to be auctioned for mining
The cabinet amended river – stream bed mining policy guidelines by going in for auctions for permitting the activity to extract sand, stone, and gravel (bajri) for open sale whereas mining lease would only be granted on private lands
However, neither auction shall be done nor mining lease for open sale of mineral shall be granted in border areas like Nalagarh Sub-Division and Kasauli Tehsil of district Solan; Chakki Khad and Neugal Khad in district Kangra; and Seer Khad passing through the districts of Bilaspur and Hamirpur, where there are chances of over exploitation of river/stream beds and illegal transportation of mineral outside the State.
Other border areas shall also be included on the basis of study being conducted. Leases for free sale upto area measuring 5 hectare for a period of upto 5 years in areas shall be granted in private land subject to the condition that no bounders/cobbles/hand broken road ballast shall be allowed to be transported outside the State.
Fresh bids to be invited for power projects
Cabinet approved re-advertising of hydropower projects Dugar (236 MW); Kilhi Bahl (7.5 MW); Mane Nadang (70 MW); Lara (60 MW); Tingret (81 MW); Kuling Lara (40 MW) and Suil (13 MW) HEP and sort to invite fresh bids in accordance with the new power policy.
To curb frequency of road accidents, the cabinet decided to make licensing regime more stringent, where all the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. 1988 and Rules would be implemented in letter and spirit before issuance of driving licenses.
To curb reckless driving, violation and non-adherence of time table by the stage carriage operators offences shall be compounded under Section 192-A of the Act which provides for penalty ranging between Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 10,000, the cabinet spokesman said.
Government to charge royalty from small hydro
Cabinet accepted recommendations of the Himachal Pradesh Infrastructure Development Board about claiming free power towards royalty from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) of Small Hydro Projects upto 5 MW capacity, as per the revised Power Policy of the State in cases where Implementation Agreements are yet to be entered into.
At the same time Independent Power Producers who had not started work on their projects would henceforth be closely monitored and reviewed. Show cause notice would be issued on non-serious IPPs allotments, which could be cancelled.
The cabinet decided to invite Expression of Interests as per the survey conducted by M/s RITES for construction of ropeways from Neugal to (Kandi) Palampur and Shah Talai to Deoth Siddh.
It granted permission for conduct of Common Entrance Test for admission to 1,923 seats for 2 Year JBT Course/Session 2009-11.
It granted approval to renew the Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme to provide insurance cover to all the government employees upto Rs 2 lakh.
To tune up with changing requirements, the cabinet approved amendments in the HP State Guest Rules.
It decided to lift ban on seating capacity of maxi cab imposed earlier which shall now be permitted to ply vehicles with sitting capacity upto 12 instead of 9 plus 1 allowed earlier.
Cabinet approved filling up of 20 posts of constables on regular basis on compassionate grounds from amongst the dependents of deceased police personnel who have died in harness and 2 posts of stenographers in the Department of Labour and Employment.
The cabinet also condoled the death of the bus accident victims which took place at Haripur in district Kangra recently.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
