Cabinet Meeting

Date:- 19 June 2024

Following important decisions were taken in the Cabinet meeting held today at Mantralaya Mahanadi Bhawan under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Shri Vishnu Deo Sai.

• Cabinet has decided to reorganize Bastar, Surguja, Mid-Area Tribal Development, Scheduled Caste Development Authority and Chhattisgarh State Rural and Other Backward Classes Development Authorities. Objective behind this decision is to reform the functioning of these five authorities, making it more effective and thereby improving the public facilities in the areas. The command of these five authorities will now be directly in the hands of Chief Minister. One of the local MLAs will be nominated as Vice President, while Regional MLAs will be the members of these authorities. The Principal Secretary or Secretary to the Chief Minister will be the Member Secretary of these five authorities.

It is noteworthy that in the year 2004-05, Bastar, Surguja and Scheduled Caste Development Authority were constituted by the then government. Thereafter, Chhattisgarh State Rural and Other Backward Classes Area Development Authority was constituted in the year 2012. The chairman of these authorities used to be the Chief Minister. Under these authorities, significant development works were done in Scheduled Tribe areas, Scheduled Caste dominated villages, Majra-Tola, Para-Mohallas, wards and rural areas. In the year 2019, the then government made radical changes in the functions of these authorities, which not only diluted their importance, but also made them ineffective with lack of transparency and monitoring. Keeping in view the aforementioned situation, the cabinet has approved the proposal for reorganization and fund-related rules of the five authorities.

It is worth noting that under the non-official resolution passed on February 23, 2024 during the budget session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, all the plain areas of the state, including those villages and development blocks where Scheduled Tribes have more than 25 percent majority have been included under the jurisdiction of the Mid-Area Tribal Development Authority. The Authority will work towards the realization of the Honourable Chief Minister’s vision, with the consensus and inputs of the local public representatives. Under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, the Authority will focus on social, economic and all-round development. With the reorganization, the functioning of the Authority will be made more transparent and effective. At present, Rs 50 crore each has been provisioned for Bastar, Surguja, Mid-Area, Scheduled Caste Development Authority and Rs 80 crore has been provisioned for Rural and Other Backward Classes Development Authority.

• The Cabinet approved the Guest Lecturer Policy-2024 for the Higher Education Department.
• For distribution of chickpeas under PDS to the beneficiary families of ‘Antyodaya’ and ‘priority’ category living in the Scheduled Areas and MADA, the Cabinet has decided to procure chickpeas at the total rate obtained by adding the issue price fixed by the Government of India and the milling and transportation rate of raw chickpeas received by the Civil Supplies Corporation.
• Cabinet has given post facto approval for the sanctioned amount of Rs 19 crore 37 lakh 93 thousand to 14 thousand 369 persons and institutions from the CM Discretionary Grant Item.
• The Cabinet has given approval for the wholesale purchase of foreign liquor directly from the manufacturing units, ending the system of FL 10 AB license currently in vogue for the wholesale selling and storage of foreign liquor. It is worth mentioning here that the procurement of foreign liquor was earlier done through licensees. Besides ending this system, the government has now entrusted Chhattisgarh Beverage Corporation with the responsibility to procure foreign liquor.