Bihar cabinet sanctions Rs 809 cr for expenditure in tackling Covid-19 pandemic

PATNA: The cabinet on Thursday gave its sanction to the state government’s proposal for the advance withdrawal of Rs 809 crore from the state contingency fund for expenditure to be incurred on the measures taken for the containment of the Covid-19 transmission in the state.
The proposal in this regard had been moved by the disaster management department (DMD). Similarly, with regard to another proposal moved by the department, the cabinet gave post-facto sanction to the transfer of money made by the government in the personal accounts of migrant workers who had arrived from other states by Shramik trains, and also to those who had arrived by using other means.
As per the announcements made, the government had reimbursed to the migrant workers the train fares that they had paid, besides Rs 500 spent by each of them during the journey and also a minimum of Rs 1,000. Similarly, the migrant workers who had arrived using other means were paid Rs 1,000 each. In both the cases, the reimbursement was made by transferring the money into their personal accounts.
The cabinet also gave its nod to the payment of Rs 2,416 crore to the urban local bodies in the state. The money had been transferred to the state government by the Centre on the basis of interim recommendations made by the 15th Finance Commission. The cabinet also sanctioned constitution of a committee headed by the chief secretary to find the ways and manner of expenditures to be made by the urban local bodies.
The cabinet also approved the government’s proposal to create 397 posts in the assistant grade for the Patna High Court. Similarly, the cabinet also gave its sanction to the promotion of personnel at 190 posts in the field offices of the transport department, besides creation of 163 other posts in the department’s field offices.
The state cabinet gave its sanction to the creation of posts in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) meant to implement the Smart City projects at Bhagalpur, Patna, Muzaffarpur and Biharsharif. The persons selected would be recruited on contract basis, while a committee headed by the urban development department secretary would decide on the fixation of posts, educational qualification and experience of the candidates required for their selection.
The cabinet gave its approval to the expenditure of Rs 9.94 crore to be incurred by the two software consultancy firms to set up and operate such programmes as CFMS, WAMIS and HRMS. The cabinet also gave its nod to the likely one-year extension to the two consultancy firms, if required, to monitor the quality of the project.
The cabinet also gave its approval to the government’s proposal to celebrate the birth anniversary of former Union minister and firebrand leader George Fernandes on June 3 as the state function each year.