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Bhubaneswar: The state cabinet Tuesday cleared a batch of eight proposals including amendments to the Orissa Excise Act 2008 allowing it the power to grant liquor licences and permits in the state which had hitherto been exercised by the excise commissioner.
“The state cabinet has given its nod to bring in amendments to the Orissa Excise Act 2008,” Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said after attending a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat here.
Padhi said two section of the Act – Sections 45 and 90 – will be amended and accordingly, a new bill named ‘the Orissa Excise (amendment) Bill – 2016 will be brought in the assembly for its consideration and passing. After amendment of Section 45, the state government instead of the excise commissioner will grant licences, permits or passes on payments of fees, the Chief Secretary said.
Likewise, the state government has a proposal to drop two sub-sections of Section 90 in the excise Act so that the government doesn’t need to move to assembly every time it wants to bring in changes to the fee structure payble in respect of excise licences, permits and passes among others.
With the state government fixing a higher excise revenue target at Rs 2,800 crore for 2016-17 fiscal, the fresh move by the government is seen as a step to ensure timely realisation of excise revenue.
For non-government Sanskrit colleges, Padhi said the government has approved grant-in-aid for these institutes which will benefit 243 teachers and 60 non-teaching staff of 43 colleges. The colleges will now get treatment at par with 662 category college employees.
Padhi said the cabinet cleared a proposal to double the allowances and remunerations of Advocate General (AG) and law officers working in high court. The monthly allowance of AG has been raised to Rs 50,000 while remunerations of law officers went up from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.
The Chief Secretary further informed that the cabinet approved the recommendations of the high court to enhance the experience requirement of senior civil judges from three years to five years to allow them promotion to the level of district judges.
The cabinet also decided to bring in the Orissa Rice and Paddy Procurement and Custom Milling of Rice Order – 2016 after rescinding the Orissa Rice and Paddy Procurement (Levy) and Restriction on Sale and Movement order – 2013 to regulate the actions of the procuring agencies and custom millers. The order provides that no agency or miller would be allowed to procure FAQ paddy at prices below the minimum support price (MSP) as notified by the Centre.