In an attempt to promote cluster farming in the State, the Uttarakhand Government has decided to start an ‘Integrated Aadarsh Krishi Gram Yojana’.  In the first phase, the ambitious scheme would be launched in 95 village Panchayats of the State. One village Panchayat in every block of the state has been earmarked for the scheme. The state cabinet in its meeting held on Wednesday approved the scheme in which a sum of Rs 14.25 Crore has been kept aside for the first phase. Cabinet minister and state government spokesman Madan Kaushik said that the Village Panchayats would choose the type of crop or plantation on the basis of climate and scientific approach for the cluster.  One cluster would have 100 farmers and a minimum agricultural land area of 10 hectares of land.

The State Government would provide a seed capital of Rs 15 lakh to every Village Panchayat and the scheme would also be linked with MNREGA to develop the cluster.

The Minister said that the scheme would prove beneficial for the farmers and the state and would be implemented in the entire state after success of the pilot project.

Uttarakhand has seven lakh hectares of agricultural land. In another decision aimed to benefit the farmers the state cabinet approved the proposal to increase the limit of loan from existing one lakh to three lakh under Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Sahakari Krishak Kalyan Yojana.

Interest free loan is provided to the farmers under this scheme. Kaushik said that so far 3,6850 farmers and 1,247 Self Help Groups (SHG) have taken benefit of the scheme and loan worth Rs 1,853.66 Crore has been provided till date under the scheme.

In an important decision, the state cabinet decided to impose a ban on import and export of River Bed Material (RBM) in the State.

A decision to amend the Uttarakhand Stone Crusher plant, mobile hot mix plant 2020 was taken by cabinet under which these plants can now be installed within 1.5 km of river Ganga and 1 km in other rivers and 0.5 km for seasonal rivers.

For the Amritsar Kolkata industrial corridor which is one of the seven such corridors selected by the Government of India, 1,000 acres of the SIIDCUL land in Udham Singh Nagar district would be developed.

Special Economic Zone (SEZ), IT parks, film city and other industrial activities would be promoted in the corridor. Kaushik said that the state cabinet also approved the Jal Jiwan Mission under which drinking water connection would be provided in the rural areas by charging a token sum  of Rs  one.

A total of 12,36,271 households in the rural Uttarakhand don’t have water connection. Kaushik said that the health department would soon start a process to recruit 1020 staff nurses for the health services.

He said that the State has focussed on improving the health infrastructure during the ongoing pandemic period of Covid-19 and standards of IPHS.