To reduce judicial load, Assam to withdraw 3 lakh petty crime cases

Guwahati, Sep 12: The Assam government has decided to withdraw around three lakh petty crime cases to reduce the load on the judiciary, a minister said.

Addressing a press conference after a Cabinet meeting here on Sunday, Tourism Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah said lakhs of petty cases are pending across the state.

"We have decided to withdraw around three lakh of the 4.19 lakh petty crime cases, invoking Section 321 of the CrPC. This will reduce the backlog of cases and decongest jails," he said.

The government will soon issue instructions and detailed standard operating procedures to the public prosecutor for filing appropriate petitions on the next dates of the respective cases, a Cabinet communiqu said.

The Cabinet also approved the Assam State Policy for Transfer of Development Rights for streamlining the process of land acquisition for the redevelopment of inner-city zones.

The government also gave its nod to the Assam State Transit Oriented Development Policy to build planned sustainable urban growth centres in the state.

It also accorded administrative approval of Rs 366 crore for upgrading 34 polytechnics and 43 government Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) into centres of excellence in association with Tata Technologies.

"The overall project cost is Rs 2,390 crore. It will provide opportunities to 15,000-20,000 students every year to learn new technologies related to the industry," the Cabinet note said.

The Cabinet approved the Assam Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Roadmap, 2030 as a vision document to reduce losses and damage to properties as well as strengthen the resilience of communities and systems for various disasters and climate change risks.

The government also cleared a proposal for setting up of two new private universities -- Girijananda Chowdhury University, Assam and Pragjyotishpur University.

The Cabinet gave a go-ahead for leasing out land to a joint venture company formed by the Assam government and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to execute the Assam Dairy Development Plan.

Accordingly, the government will execute the lease agreements for two land parcels at Jorhat and Dibrugarh to set up milk processing plants.