Patna,(BiharTimes): The Nitish cabinet on Tuesday gave green signal to the new sand policy for the state to check its illegal mining and ensure maximum revenue to the state.
Though apparently it was done in accordance with the Supreme Court directives of February 27, 2012 the recent controversy over sand mining in several states perhaps prompted the Bihar government to take a decision in this regard.
Now sand mining cannot be carried out within 300metres of railway lines, national and state highways, 600m of Sone Bridge in Koilwar and 50m of any religious and public places.
Later talking to the media on Tuesday cabinet secretariat department secretary Brajesh Mehrotra said the cabinet also approved a proposal to set up Bihar State Mining Corporation, which would provide sand for 25 years on lease. The Corporation will independently handle the entire process of inviting tenders for the lease rights.
According to Mehrotra the new policy has come out with guidelines for carrying out sand mining. The provision for getting environmental clearance has been made mandatory. It talks about development of mining areas, reconstruction and rehabilitation work
Under the new policy, a separate cell would be set up for getting environment clearance, e-tendering, mining plan and online monitoring system.
The cabinet also approved the creation of a separate post of adviser (infrastructure) to the chief minister. Former Union home secretary Raj Kumar Singh, a Bihar cadre retired IAS officer, is likely to be appointed as the advisor.
The cabinet also gave its nod to the proposal of the social welfare department to introduce a new Parvarish Yojana to provide allowance to orphaned children and wards of HIV positive and parents suffering from leprosy. This would be applicable to BPL families or those having annual income of not more than Rs 60,000. Children up to six years of age would be given a monthly allowance of Rs 900 each while those above six years and up to 18 years would be given Rs 1000 in the same category.
The guardian of the child would get Rs 900 per month for 1-9 years of age and Rs 1,000 for 6-18 years after producing BPL card, death of the parents of the child and the certified copy of the adoption. This scheme would be implemented immediately.
The cabinet cleared Rs 784.44 crore for diesel subsidy payment in view of the drought-like situation in the state.
|
