Local Goa News

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Each household to get 3 LED bulbs free

PANAJI: Government has decided to illuminate the households in the state by providing three light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs free of cost under the ‘Jyotirmay Goa’ scheme.

Informing the media about the decision after the cabinet meeting on Friday, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that Goa will be the first state in the country to bring the reforms. Earlier, the central government had announced distribution of LED bulbs at a subsidised rate of Rs 25 per bulb to the consumers under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme ‘Ujala’.
“The government will bear the total cost of the bulbs and provide three bulbs to each household,” Parsekar stated. He further informed that by providing the LED bulbs to all 4,84,886 households, the state electricity department would save around eight million units of power which would save the government treasury around Rs sixteen crore sixty lakh annually.
Parsekar informed, “Despite providing the bulbs free of cost to the consumers, the government will still save Rs 5,43,77,298 during the current financial year even after bearing total subsidy cost of around Rs 11 crore.”
The consumers will have to visit the earmarked kiosk in their respective locality and avail of the benefit by producing a copy of the electricity bill.
Meanwhile, the state cabinet on Friday also decided that the proceedings at gram sabhas of the village panchayats be video recorded and the panchayats would maintain the video recordings alongwith the minutes of the proceedings.
Justifying the decision, the Chief Minister said, “There had been representations from various panchayats that there is chaos during the gram sabhas and therefore for smooth and fair conduct of the gram sabhas, the government has decided to video record the proceedings of the sabha.”
The cabinet also gave its nod to handing over the Fort Aguada jail premises to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) to develop under the centrally sponsored Swadesh Darshan Scheme. Under the scheme, the Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned Rs 25.85 crore to the state for the project.
“The GTDC will prepare the master plan for the heritage tourism by keeping the history intact and maintaining the heritage and protecting the structure,” he stated.
Accepting the representation of retirees prior to 2012 in the department of rural development, the government has extended the retirement benefits to the five employees who retired before 2012.
Meanwhile, a decision has been taken by the cabinet to create six posts of in the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB), three each of associate professor and assistant professor. Twenty posts will be created in the Government Polytechnic Mayem-Bicholim and four new posts have been sanctioned in the Goa Dental College (GDC).
The creation of new posts at IPHB and GDC will enable the government to start new courses at the institutes, the Chief Minister informed.

NT Network Goa News

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