The Cabinet cleared the payment of one instalment of dearness allowance to employees with effect from January 7, 2017. This entails a burden of ₹627 crore. It also gave the nod for an ad hoc increase in the emoluments of village revenue assistants (VRAs) and part-time assistants.
At its meeting on Thursday, the Cabinet accepted the proposal to give incentives to IndiGo for operating two return flights a week from Vijayawada and Singapore and for the introduction of nine-seater aircraft between Vijayawada and Puttaparthi and Vijayawada and Nagarajuna Sagar.
The Cabinet gave conditional sanction for the construction of 15,091 houses at a cost of ₹3.50 lakh each under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-NTR Nagar (urban) scheme for 2018-19.
The Cabinet approved the draft A.P-Maritime Board Bill, 2017 which will govern the development of seaports, and raising of a loan of ₹1,385 crore from the open market for the construction of the Machilipatnam deepwater port and developing port-based industrial corridor as per the revised concession agreement.
Port limits modified
The Cabinet also cleared changes to the limits of Krishnapatnam port consequent upon the permission given for the establishment of a non-major port at Ramayapatnam.
Further, the Cabinet cleared the reduction of power tariff to aqua farmers from ₹3.75 to ₹2-a-unit with effect from August 1. It will benefit 94,913 farmers for one year.
Another important decision taken by the Cabinet was to establish an International Institute of Digital Technologies as a not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act at Tirupati at an estimated cost of nearly ₹100 crore.
The Cabinet cleared the implementation of the NTR Cancer Care Project with the collaboration of TATA Trusts for which G.O RT No. 126 has already been issued.
The other decisions are: establishment of A.P. State Arya-Vysya Welfare and Development Corporation and launching the Mukhyamantri Yuva Nestham portal on September 14 for disbursing unemployment allowance to beneficiaries to be finalised on October 2.