Decisions of the State Council of Ministers headed by the CM | 17 May 2023

Why in News?

In the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on 16 May 2023, several other important decisions were taken along with increasing the annual income limit for the scholarship to Scheduled Caste students from Rs.6 lakh to Rs.8 lakh.

Key Points:

• In compliance with the Chief Minister's announcement, the cabinet has increased the annual income limit for the scholarship to scheduled caste students. With this, the students belonging to the Scheduled Caste category will be able to get many opportunities to get an education.
• The cabinet gave administrative approval of more than Rs 41 thousand 923 crore under the 3-year budget and financial provisions of Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana-2023 (from the financial year 2023-24 to the financial year 2025-26).
• The cabinet ratified the departmental order issued on 22 April 2023 regarding the management of agricultural lands of temples maintained by the government.
  • According to the order, the priests will be able to use the income from the government-maintained temples, which have agricultural land up to 10 acres attached.
  • Remaining agricultural lands will be auctioned for agricultural purposes by adopting a transparent process, informing the District Collector. The proceeds from the auction will be deposited in the temple's account.
• To ensure the availability of chemical fertilizers in the state and to avoid any inconvenience to the farmers, the Council of Ministers decided to make advance storage of 10 lakh 80 thousand tonnes for the year 2023-24 during the period from February 1 to May 31.
  • It is worth mentioning that in the advance storage scheme of chemical fertilizers (Urea, DAP, Complex and Potash), Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation has been declared as the state nodal agency for the arrangement of DAP, Complex, Potash and Urea fertilizers in the state.
• The cabinet approved the computerization of 4534 PACS of the state under the Centrally Sponsored Project for Computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies (PACS) implemented by the Union Ministry of Cooperatives.
  • According to the BharatNet scheme by the Department of Science and Technology, optical fibre-based internet connectivity will be made available at the headquarters of 4534 PACS on a priority basis.
• The cabinet approved the Central Government's integrated child protection scheme 'Mission Vatsalya' to be implemented in all the districts of the state according to the new norms.
• The cabinet approved an amendment in the Madhya Pradesh Sand (Mining, Transport, Storage and Trade) Rules-2019.
  • Instead of 'e-tender', the sand clusters of 44 districts in the state will be decided by group-wise contract through an 'e-tender-cum-auction' process.
  • The period of the contract will be fixed for 3 years (extendable for two additional years) from the date of the contract.
  • Statutory permissions (mining plan/environmental permission/climate consent etc.) will be obtained by the State Mineral Corporation.
  • A tripartite agreement will be executed between the successful MDO (Mines Developer and Operator), collector and corporation in the tender.
  • The contract amount will be payable in the form of monthly instalments instead of quarterly and an annual increase of 10 percent in the contract amount will be done on completion of 1 year of contract operation instead of July every year.