In a slew of cabinet decisions, the Uttarakhand government has announced a new rehabilitation policy for natural disasters, exempted sugar from value added tax (VAT) and decided to extend sops to IT companies.
A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank here last evening.
Under the new rehabilitation policy, the government would bear the cost of shifting an entire family in case their house is declared unsafe by the competent authority due to natural disasters.
As part of the compensation package, the family would be provided a land of 250 square meters and a cash of Rs 3 lakh for construction of house. Also, Rs 10,000 as disturbance allowance and Rs 15,000 for cow-shed will be given to the affected families. In case such house belongs to an artisan, an additional amount of Rs 25,000 would be paid by the government.
The announcement of the rehabilitation policy assumes significance as most of the hilly regions in the state is considered to be highly fragile. Due to various natural disasters in the past, atotal of 233 villages have been identified for rehabilitation.
Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar said, “the government is making all the efforts to rehabilitate these 233 villages. Once any family or the entire village is shifted elsewhere, their property or land will become state government's property.”
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In yet another decision, the government decided to extend various concessions provided to IT companies like HCL, HP and Wipro, in 2005, when they had set up their shops in the hill state. These concessions, which expired in 2010, have been extended on the ground that they are fulfilling the conditions imposed by the government like 70 per cent jobs to the locals, he said.
The cabinet also decided to lower the VAT on packed namkeen and chemical-based henna to 4.5 per cent from the existing 12.5 per cent. Apart from this, the government decided to impose 1 per cent VAT on textile goods but decided to exempt sugar from VAT.
Earlier central excise duty was levied on sugar and textile but recently, the Centre has asked states to take them under the ambit of VAT, Kumar said.
The cabinet also decided t hand over the 50 acres of land of G B Pant University of Agriculture and technology worth Rs 3.40 crore to Rudrapur mandi samiti. The samiti would pay Rs 1 crore to the varsity.