Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat reviewed the functioning of the Social Welfare, Minority Welfare and Transport Departments at the secretariat here on Monday.
While reviewing the functioning of the transport department, the Chief Minister said that a subsidy of 50 per cent will be granted for buses on contract with the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation.
This will facilitate jobs for the unemployed and also decrease the load on the Government. The efforts of the Government are aimed at curtailing road accidents and ensuring swift response in case there is an accident.
According to statistics, there has been a drop of our per cent and 16 per cent in road accidents and fatalities caused by road accidents respectively this year. Officials informed in the meeting that a target of generating revenue of Rs 965 crore from transport has been set for this year.
Out of this, Rs 362 crore has been achieved so far. A total of 20 enforcement teams are active for works related to road safety. In addition to this, a budgetary provision of Rs 4 crore has been made for the road safety fund. The officials further informed that in order to curtail the road accidents caused by over-speeding, the fixing of speed limiting device has been made mandatory in commercial vehicles. From January 1, 2019, vehicle location tracking device and panic button have been made mandatory in all public transport vehicles.
The department has received land for setting up automated testing lane in Haridwar, Haldwani and Rishikesh. The approval of the Central Government has also been received for setting up of drivers training institution in Haldwani. Land has been marked for the construction of the inter state bus terminal in Haldwani, informed officials.
Reviewing the Social Welfare department, the chief minister expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in provision of scholarships.
He directed the officials concerned to set a time limit for providing scholarships to the students, adding that the scholarship should be provided within the time limit under any circumstances.
He also directed the officials to ensure that beneficiaries of all the pension schemes operated by the department are paid on time.
He also sought full details of the availability of faculty and trade in the ITIs being run for students from scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. Maximum focus needs to be laid on ensuring quality education, stressed the CM.
He also sought information about the departmental land not being used properly at present. Stating that the grant of Rs 25,000 for marrying specially abled person needs to be increased, he sought documentation for increasing the said grant to Rs 50,000. Regarding the complaint received about illegal possession being taken of land of an industrial enterprise in Haldwani, he directed the officials concerned to issue a notice immediately.
During the meeting, officials informed that 232 infrastructural development schemes in scheduled tribe-caste areas amounting to Rs 20 crore had been approved.
Out of these, 60 schemes have been completed while work is underway on the rest of the schemes. Officials informed that the multipurpose finance and development corporation limited is facilitating loan at low interest rates for BPL families belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories for their economic upliftment. So far a total of 1699 beneficiaries have benefitted from this scheme.
Reviewing minority welfare, the chief minister directed officials to ensure that the intended beneficiaries receive the benefit on time of Governmental schemes being operated for their benefit. A sum of Rs 99 lakh has been allocated in financial year 2018-19 for 588 girl students from the minority community under the girl child encouragement scheme.
A sum of Rs 34.32 lakh has been allocated for the training and skill development of 611 persons under the chief minister skill scheme.
The Transport and Social Welfare minister Yashpal Arya, chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh and other departmental officials concerned were also among those present in the meeting.
