Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in the presence of other government officials unanimously decided to adopt the ‘Jan Ghoshna Patra’ or the Public Manifesto, introduced during the Assembly elections, as a policy document of state government.
Chairing the first meeting of the Cabinet and Council of Ministers of the new government at the Chief Minister’s Office here on Saturday, Gehlot handed over a copy of the manifesto to the Chief Secretary and asked the government officials to ensure time-bound and fast implementation of the announcements therein.
The Cabinet unanimously decided to authorise the Chief Minister for the formation of a cabinet committee for effective implementation of the manifesto.
The Cabinet, amongst many important decisions, resolved to reestablish Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University and Harideo Joshi Journalism University, which were winded off by the previous government, increase amount for old-age social security pension from Rs. 500 to Rs 750 and from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1000, and abolish the provision of minimum educational qualification in Panchayati Raj elections.
This decision aimed at increasing peoples’ participation in the decentralised form of governance and restoration of the right of citizens to fight elections.
The Rajasthan Cabinet further resolved to form an inter-departmental committee for short-term farm loan waiver and authorised the Chief Minister to nominate members for this committee. This committee would formulate the criteria and eligibility for waiving off loans from the cooperative banks, nationalised banks, regional rural banks and the land development banks.
The Cabinet also decided that the elections for the appointment of mayor and chairman in the local urban bodies would be done by direct vote as per the previous practice.
A resolution was also adopted by the Cabinet to form a committee for redressal of grievances of the contract employees, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) workers, para teachers, Urdu teachers, Lok Jumbish workers, Anganwadi workers, shikshakarmis, vidhyarthi mitras, panchayat sahayaks and other employees working in the state government. This committee would attend to the problems of all such workers and take early decisions on their resolution.
At the meeting, it was resolved that the state government would ensure transparency, responsibility and sensitivity towards the public in governance along with the implementation of the Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act, 2011 and the Rajasthan Right to Hearing Act, 2012.
In addition, all ministers of the state government were also directed to hold and ensure effective public hearing at their respective residences every day between 9 am to 10 am.
The decision of reversing the format of state government’s letter pad was also taken in the meeting. From now onwards, photo of Deendayal Upadhyay would be removed from the letterhead and the National Emblem Ashoka would be restored in the top middle of the letter masthead.
Lastly, the Cabinet also sought for effective implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in the state.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]