Chouhan govt's sop to agri sector

Bhopal, May 16 (UNI) In a major sop to the agri sector and the poor, the Madhya Pradesh government today announced a Rs 510-crore powers subsidy targeting them.

A cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan decided to supply electricity at Rs 1.70 per unit to farms as against the Electricity Regulatory Authority's price of Rs 2.50, an official release said here.

Domestic consumers availing only 30 units per month would have to shell out Rs 1.75 per unit in place of the Rs 2.65 rate that was implemented on April 1, 2004.

For village panchayats' low-tension street lighting schemes, the charges were slashed to Rs 48 per KW instead of Rs 120.

VAT on objects used by hearing and speech impaired was reduced to nil from 12.5 per cent and the cabinet presented a medicine policy formulated by the Public Health and Family Welfare (PH&FP) department.

With a centralised system being in place for obtaining surgical equipment, separate purchase orders would not be issued for the Medical Education, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation departments.

To ensure the system's smooth functioning, a separate cell would be constituted in the Directorate of Public Health. The PH&FP department would be the nodal agency for purchase of medicine and associated material.

Thirty-eight posts of deputy district chirpersons would be directly filled by the Public Service Commission. The emergency fund limit was enhanced to Rs 10 crore.

VAT was brought down to zero on seed varieties, with the exception of a few and the tax was slashed from 12.5 to 4 per cent on power generation and distribution plants, machinery and equipment parts, the release added.

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