U’khand Cabinet approves new Excise policy for FY 2024-25 – myuttarakhandnews.com | Uttarakhand News in English | Dehradun News Today| News Uttarakhand | Uttarakhand latest news

Thursday, 15 February 2024 | my uttarakhand news | DEHRADUN The State government has set up a revenue target of Rs 4,440 crore for the excise department for the financial year 2024-25 which is 11 per cent more than the target for the current year. The State cabinet in its meeting held on Wednesday approved the draft of the new excise policy.  The cabinet chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also approved the proposal to start the Uttarakhand Air Connectivity Scheme. The scheme aims to build the capacity of the air services in the State and remove the obstacles in the process. It envisages providing financial assistance to the air service operators and increasing overall international and domestic air connectivity in the State. The chief secretary (CS) Radha Raturi said that the cabinet also paved the way for extension of Pantnagar air strip to 3,000 meter from 1,372 meters by giving its approval to the proposal according to which the state government will bear the cost of realignment of seven km stretch of National Highway 109. A sum of Rs 188.55 crore will be provided to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the purpose.  In an important decision the cabinet decided to amend the CM meritorious student scholarship scheme. Now the students taking admission in the undergraduate courses in top 50 (NIRF) universities of the country will be provided a scholarship of Rs 50,000 at the end the first year of UG course.  The cabinet also decided to reorganise the cadre of X-ray technicians in the state health services. The department has 161 sanctioned posts of X-ray technicians.  The decision to provide remuneration for uniforms to the students of government Industrial Training Institutes (IIT) was also taken in the cabinet.  The CS said that the cabinet approved the proposal to give three hectares of forest land on lease of 30 years to the Jogda Ashram society of India, Dwarahat. A proposal regarding this will now be sent to the government of India. In another decision the cabinet decided to create 82 posts in eight government Ayurveda hospitals after their upgradation.  A decision to provide the benefit of the medical reimbursement to the pensioners who had opted out of the State government health scheme was also made by the cabinet. The cabinet also endorsed the proposal to amend the process of recruitment of experts in urban local bodies in the State Institute for Empowering and Transforming Uttarakhand (SETU).