Assam Cabinet on Friday took several key decisions pertaining to setting up floating solar plants in beels, seat reservations in medical education, city gas distribution pipeline and others.

Taking to Twitter, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “In today’s Cabinet, we took several key decisions pertaining to setting up floating solar plants in beels, fodder production on mission mode, seat reservation in medical education, microfinance benefits Phase-II rollout, city gas distribution pipeline and others.”

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For the installation of Floating Solar Power Plants, the user rights of beels under Assam Fisheries Development Corporation Ltd (AFDCL) to be transferred to Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) after an agreement between AFDCL and APDCL As per the cabinet decision, the ownership of the beels will still remain with AFDCL.
AFDCL, which has 186 Beels covering around 12,266 hectares, will simultaneously lease out the Beels.

For boosting fodder production, Assam Fodder Mission will be set up for a period of 7 years with a proposed budget of Rs 120.20 crore (of which Rs 30 crore will be contributed by the Government of Assam via APART.
The objective is to provide training and capacity building of 40,900 beneficiaries and to create employment opportunities for 85 dairy farmers in the advanced feed processing sector.

The Cabinet also passed a decision to give a Durga Puja bonus to tea workers, for which Rs 18.02 crore will be released as a loan to Assam Tea Corporation Limited for payment of bonus to its employees and workers for the ensuing Durga Puja.

To streamline the process of laying the City Gas Distribution Pipeline (CGDP), the Deputy Commissioner to give digging permission for Right of Way (preferably within 15 days and not exceeding 30 days from the submission of the detailed plan)

As per the decision, Jurisdictional Circle Officers to reclassify/ reclassify-cum-transfer agricultural land up to 10 bigha for industrial purpose only for laying of CGDP and Assam Agricultural Land (Regulation of Reclassification and Transfer for Non-Agricultural Purpose) Act, 2015 not to apply on leasing out of land already allotted to AIDC/AIIDC/ASIDC for industrial purpose only (laying of City Gas Distribution Pipeline system).

The decision will create an atmosphere for industrial investment by making land readily available and empower Circle Officers to ensure fast disposal of petitions relating to the reclassification of agricultural land as proposed
The state cabinet also lands for research set-up and for this the government has decided to give 1 bigha, 5 lessa land at Betkuchi village in Kamrup (M) to the All Bodo Students’ Union for setting up Academic Research and Career Information Centre.

For ensuring Water Availability and smooth implementation of Neer Nirmal Pariyojana, the cabinet allotted an additional 146.38 crores for the completion of Large Multi-Village Schemes in 3 districts – Kamrup (M), Jorhat and Hailakandi.

The cabinet allocated Rs 8.44 crore to Kamrup (M), Rs 32.34 crore to Jorhat and Rs 5.60 crore to Hailakandi.

To provide relief for micro-finance borrowers, category II of Assam Micro Finance Incentive and Relief Scheme 2021 will be rolled out with 6 amendments in existing guidelines and approval to concurrence to financial sanction of the required amount Category II involves borrowers whose payments are overdue by 1-89 days, i.e., for accounts which are overdue but not NPA.

The rollout will cover around Rs 1.07 lakh beneficiaries which include the provision of the overdue amount to the lenders and incentive amount to the beneficiaries district-wise by October 2022.

To ensure inclusiveness in medical education the state cabinet has decided to rollout Schedule III of Medical Colleges and Dental Colleges of Assam (Regulation of Admission into 1st-year MBBS/BDS courses) Rule 2017 and (Amendment) Rules, 2021 to be amended w.e.f. Academic Session 2022-23.
The representation of MBBS seats for 6 communities within OBC will be increased by two seats and three seats to be reserved under the Ex-Servicemen quota for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) studies.

The cabinet also took the decision for age relaxation in medical colleges
The upper age limit at entry-level posts in medical colleges to be increased from 38 to 40 years for the General category, 41 to 43 years for OBC/MOBC and 43 to 45 years for SC/ST category applicants.

This decision will incentivise and motivate PG doctors to offer their services as faculty in the Medical Colleges.