State to have 3 new medical colleges

PATNA: The state cabinet on Tuesday decided to establish three new medical colleges in Madhepura, Bettiah and Pawapuri besides six ITIs in Purnia, Jamui, Banka, Kaimur, Saharsa and Madhubani.

The cabinet also enhanced the driving licence fee. Now the learner’s licence would cost Rs 200. Earlier, the transport department used to charge Rs 40 for the same. Besides this, the internal driving permit fee has been increased to Rs 1,000 and Smart Card Driving Licence fee would now be Rs 500.

Cabinet secretary Girish Shankar said as part of the agriculture roadmap, the government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 3491.47 lakh for a period of four years towards the Crash Seed Scheme. With the scheme the agriculture department would be able to produce high-yielding seeds which would ultimately help in increasing productivity. During the current financial year, a sum of Rs 856.71 lakh would be spent, he said.

In order to give boost to farmers, the government has decided that all wheat-producing farmers would be given bonus at the rate of Rs 25 per quintal for the current financial year.

The bonus would be over and above the minimum support price fixed by the Central government. This scheme would be implemented from Wednesday itself, said Shankar.

The cabinet has also decided to give salary as per UGC norms to lab demonstrators of all universities and colleges in the state.

The cabinet rejected an earlier proposal of Messrs Kisan Udairaj Sugar Complex Svavalambi Sahakari Samiti Ltd to establish a sugar mill at a cost of Rs 230 crore in Vara Daud village under Paru block of Muzaffarpur district. Now the government has given its nod to set up a sugar plant by Messrs Vaishali Kisan Udai Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd in Chochahi Chhapra village under Paru block of Muzaffarpur district at a cost of Rs 155.18 crore.

The mill would have a capacity to produce 5,000 TCD of sugar, 72 kilolitres of ethanol per day. Besides, 26 MW power will also be generated along the way. The sugar production would start by November next year.

The government also increased the number of days for earned leave of all teaching and non-teaching staff of all universities and colleges of the state. Now they would be entitled to earned leave up to 300 days.

The government also gave its nod for recruiting 11,500 Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) personnel, 100 junior commissioned officers and 400 cooks on contractual basis during the current financial year.