Ranchi, Sept.14: State government will collect toll for use of road passing through mining areas of the state. A decision to this effect was taken in a cabinet meeting today.

Cabinet secretary Vandana Dadel informed this saying that it is being expected that practice will help earn revenue of Rs 600 crore to Rs 700 crore every year.

She informed that the rate of toll has been approved in the cabinet before adding that there will be no barrier on the road and the road construction department will earmark the area from where toll will be collected.

Apart from the decision for collecting toll from the road passing through the mining area, the cabinet also approved Rs 80.75 crore for selection and development of solar city in the state.

For rooftop power plants without batteries there is provision of 40 percent subsidy from the union government and 60 percent from the state government. For other categories, provision of subsidy has been decided on the basis of income. For those having income of less than 3 lakh, there is provision of 40 percent subsidy from government and 40 percent subsidy from state. For those having income more than 3 lakh and above there is provision of 40 percent subsidy from the union government, 30 percent subsidy from state government.

Other decisions taken in the meeting include, post facto approval of ordinance related to Panchayati Raj and budgetary estimation related to personnel department besides creation of police stations in all the districts except Khunti and Ramgarh for registration of e-FIR, which is registered when accused is not identified.

Other decisions included free transfer of .45 acre land for installation of power sub-station of 33.11KVA in residential area of Dhanbad, sanctioning of Rs 46.20 crore for strengthening of 58.26 km stretch of state highway-18 in Sahibganj starting from milestone 251 to 309, Rs 44.04 crore for construction of road over bridge at Jamshedpur and relaxing the rule of excise tax collection keeping the impact of corona lock down.

The cabinet also sanctioned 63 posts for Nagar Untari Sub divisional court in Garhwa, constituted fund for rehabilitation of children in conflict with law under Juvenile Justice Act, nominated Ram Satar Art Creation Private Limited for construction of statue of two more freedom fighters of the state, Bhagirath Manjhi and Ganga Narayan Singh at Birsa Munda Museum in Ranchi, sanctioned Rs 141.57 crore for transportation and storage of food grains to be distributed under Pradham Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna under which 5 kg per unit per months food grains has to be given from July 21 to November 21 among the beneficiaries under Food Security Act.

The cabinet also approved two additional posts of members in the State Consumer Commission taking the number of members including one chairman and two members to five including one chairman and four members. Among the other decisions included sanctioning of Rs 57.82 crore for expansion of IT infrastructure.

Hindusthan Samachar/Raj Kumar