Bhubaneswar: The state Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Saturday approved 15 projects relating to education, civil service recruitment rules, mega piped water and augmenting information services among others.
The Cabinet proposed a new legislation to upgrade the College of Engineering and Technology (CET) into a non-affiliated unitary university under the name Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR).
According to the government, the decision will pave way for more facilities and opportunities for graduate, post-graduate and other students in diverse fields.
The Cabinet also decided to formulate new rules for the timely promotion of pharmacists in jails, citing lack of statutory provisions for recruiting pharmacist in jails, which often lead to piling up of litigations in different courts.
A decision to improve the 23-km stretch of the Duduka-Gopalpur-Toparia road in Sundargarh district was also taken at the Cabinet meet. This road is a part of a major road connecting Sundargarh town and Raigarh in Chhattisgarh.
It also connects the town to Basundhara coal mines. The Cabinet also approved a tender for the project worth Rs 102.65 crore and set a deadline of 24 months to complete the work.
At the same time, the Cabinet decided to relax the norms related to stamp duty in land developments work such as making provisions for agreements between the developer and land owner and granting power of attorney to ease the process as well as ensure more revenue to the government.
At the same time, the government increased the stamp duty for certified copies from Rs 10 to Rs 100.
The Cabinet also approved amendments to the Odisha Civil Services (Criteria for Promotion) Rules, 1992 to offer better scope for promotions to Group C employees. The meeting decided to do away with the provision of Confidential Character Report and Performance Report for granting promotions.
The amendments allow higher officials to assess the performance of Group C employees and record their remark as ‘fit for shouldering higher responsibilities’ or ‘not fit for shouldering higher responsibilities’.
Several other decisions relating to piped water projects in mining areas and amendment to recruitment rules were also approved by the Cabinet Saturday.
PNN
