Bihar to enlist retd officials for speedy departmental actions

The Bihar government today gave its nod for enlisting retired officials, for speedy handling of departmental action against government servants.
At the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, approval was given to the selection process of such retired officials and the terms of their service, Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat Department, Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters here.
He said "the decision has been taken in light of the fact that serving officials often have too much of workload to complete departmental actions in time. Applications will be invited from eligible retired officials for the purpose and selections will be made accordingly".

Speaking about other decisions taken at the cabinet meeting, Mehrotra said "a stamp duty exemption of Rs 216 crore has been approved for transfer of lease of 480 acres of land, for 55 years, to Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd - a joint venture of NTPC, IOCL and CIL, by the Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation at Barauni".
"This will facilitate revival, by 2020, of the fertilizer plant at Barauni which has been lying defunct for close to two decades", the principal secretary said.
He also said that a hike in remuneration has been approved for 2745 "krishi samanvayaks" in the state, who have been hired on contract to provide technical assistance in implementation of various agricultural schemes.

"An approval has been given for raising their stipend from 15,000 to 32,000 with effect from April 01, 2017", Mehrotra added.

"Nod was also given for releasing Rs 334 crore for undertaking various works under the MNREGA scheme. These include renovation of a number of properties, spread across 21 districts, which were hit by floods", he said.
"A sanction of about Rs 290 crore was also given for the upcoming police academy at Rajgir in Nalanda district", he added.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who hails from Nalanda, has called the police academy his "dream project".
"Altogether 22 proposals, relating to various department received the cabinet nod today", Mehrtora added.