About 1.1 million retired employees of the Uttar Pradesh government will get a minimum 50 per cent of the last salary drawn as pension, on the lines of their central government counterparts. This was decided at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mayawati here today.
The state employees were demanding a revision in their pension amount for some time. According to officials, the state government has made a provision of paying revised pension as part of the Rs 4,662-crore supplementary grant tabled in the state Assembly.
The state cabinet also gave its nod for setting up a hydro power plant at Dukuwa in Lalitpur district. According to the cabinet decision, work on the project, to be fully set up by the UP Hydro Power Corporation, will begin shortly. The corporation already has one plant at Matatila in Bundelkhand region and this would be second one in this area.
In another decision, the state cabinet has given its nod to the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh Sodic Land Reclamation Project that is being run with the help of the World Bank.
In the third phase, 130,000 hectare of sodic land will be reclaimed, while 5,000 hectares of ravines will be reclaimed. The World Bank will provide 56 per cent of the total cost of the project. The state government will contribute 16 per cent of the cost, while the rest will come from other sources.
A total of 300,000 farmers will benefit from the third phase of the project. The cabinet also approved the proposal of opening a state-of-the-art technical institute in Noida.