UP cabinet approves 'exceptional pension' for comatose cops

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to give "exceptional pension" to police personnel who are injured in discharge of their duties and go into coma while on duty, a government spokesman said.

Until now the "exceptional pension" was only given to policemen who lost their lives on duty.

The state cabinet also approved a proposal of giving 25 per cent discount in the purchase of land by the Tata Consultancy for establishing a Rs 2,300 crore unit in Noida which would employ 30,000 persons.

In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the cabinet also passed five other important proposals that included the constitution of a Bundelkhand Development Board (BDB) and Poorvanchal Development Board (PDB), which would be headed by Adityanath, and would include two deputy-chairmen and 11 non-government members.

The two boards would also have two experts and would have a tenure of three years each.

In the wake of problems faced by traders in the state with regards to the GST, the state cabinet also gave its nod to the constitution of the Uttar Pradesh Traders Welfare Board. It would similarly be headed by the Chief Minister and have three deputy chairpersons and 11 non-government members.

The board would meet every three months and look into the problems being faced by the traders, with regards to the GST roll out and find remedies, the spokesman said.

The state cabinet also approved an excise policy for the financial year 2019-20, Health Minister and state government spokesman, Siddhartha Nath Singh said.

He added that allotment of liquor vends and shops would now be done on a lottery basis. About 60 per cent of liquor shops would be modernised and the new policy would take care of the pitfalls and lacunae in the past policies.

In 2017-18, the Excise Department earned a revenue of Rs 10,118 crore while it earned Rs 15,005 crore in 2018-19.

This, Singh said, meant that the department had earned 48 per cent more profit in the current financial year.

--IANS

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