UP cabinet ratifies name change of Allahabad, Faizabad

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday ratified the renaming of Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj district, an official spokesman said.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, also decided that the Faizabad division would now be known as Ayodhya division and the Allahabad division as Prayagraj.

The cabinet also approved the tabling of the report of the Judicial Commission that probed the death of 25 persons in a stampede at Rajghat bridge in Varanasi in October 2016.

The cabinet also approved a proposal to award the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Award of Merit to good teachers of the financially unaided schools of the state.

There are 19,275 such schools in the state and under the award scheme, one teacher each from every division would be given Rs 25,000.

The cabinet also fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of maize at Rs 1,700 per quintal and okayed Rs 20 as carrying charges in addition to the MSP.

The procurement would be conducted in 20 districts and a budget of Rs 214.90 crore has been fixed for buying one lakh metric tonnes.

An Amendment (Fifth) in the rule book of the Medical University Service was also made, paving the way for the post of Assistant Professor in place of Lecturer.

The cabinet also approved the transfer of 48.03 square meters of land at the government polytechnic on Faizabad road in Lucknow to the Lucknow Metro and acquisition of 130 buildings around the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi for the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project.

166 houses have already been acquired. The government has earmarked Rs 413 crore for this, of which Rs 190 crore has been sanctioned.

--IANS

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