Himachal waives off stamp duty, registration fees for farmers

In a relief to the farmers, HimachalCabinet today decided to wave off the stamp duty and registration fee for the farming community that will help them get back their sold or mortgaged land without additional burdens.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who presided over a meeting here, said that it has been done to provide relief to those distressed farmers whose land had been sold or ownership transferred in favour of the bank and recorded in revenue records.
Since the revenue authorities were pressing hard for the payment of stamp duty and registration fee, which some poor farmers were finding difficult to pay, a decision was taken to waive off stamp duty and registration fee in respect of those farmers who are availing benefit of 'One Time Settlement' scheme to facilitate transfer of their land in their names, he added.

The Cabinet decided to give incentive or award in shape of grand-in-aid to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) who elected all the office bearers and members un-opposed. The incentive would be Rs 5 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh for Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads respectively.
The Cabinet gave nod to the proposal to relax the norm of 100 meters from the road head for allotment of land upto 3 biswa in rural areas and 2 biswa in urban areas for the construction of dwelling units as per the housing policy of the state government to the urban and rural landless persons.

It will benefit large number of landless persons both urban and rural areas of the state.

Cabinet decided to constitute the State Monitoring Committee under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 with Financial Commissioner Revenue of GoHP as its Chairman besides 11 other members and a member Secretary.
It was further decided to levy 9 per cent Administrative and Contingency charges on land acquisitions under taken by the state government through land acquisition collectors and Special Land Acquisition Unit for Central government ministries for construction of National Highways, Railways, Defence projects etc, officials informed.

The Cabinet decided to launch Special recruitment drive for clearance of shortfall and backlog of more than 6,000 posts of different categories for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in various departments in the state, the officials said.
The Cabinet gave its consent for grant of NOC to transfer the immovable assets of Central School for Tibetan, Chhota Shimla to Sambota Tibetan Schools Society, Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Dharamshala (HP).
The decision would pacify the farmers affected by
Kiratpur-Manali four-laning project, who are agitating demanding higher compensation.
The Cabinet also decided to denotify Shri Naina Devi Ji out of planning area, liberating the same from the enforcement of Town and Country Planning Regulations.

Also a sum of Rs 150 crore was approved by GoI under Phase III of Prime Minister Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) for construction of Super Specialty block in IGMC Shimla.
Out of this sanctioned amount the State Government will spend Rs 30 crore.
The Cabinet also decided to relax the educational qualification for promotion of 26 water carriers to the post of cooks in Police department.
It also decided to reduce the entry tax on gold from 0.25 per cent to 0.10 per cent.
The cabinet approved the decision to take over Kusumbha Mata temple (Khegsu) near Luri in district Kullu and Mahamritunjay Temple at Mandi under government control under the HP Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act 1984.

It approved the change of location/elevation and enhancement of capacity of Pursore (5 MW) Hydel Electric Project in Kullu district to 15 MW with the condition that the IPP will pay capacity addition charges and all the charges payable as per the policy for the projects above 5 MW including additional free power royalty.
Approval was accorded in principle to set up fivehydel power projectswith capacity upto 5 MW on Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.
The projects included Chanju Mehad (5 MW) and Mehled (3 MW) in district Chamba, Supin, Sundru and Tangnu all 5 MW in Shimla district.