UP cabinet nod for 10% quota for general category poor

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Friday gave its nod to implement 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker sections in general category in all government jobs and government educational institutions with effect from January 14, 2019.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the cabinet meeting that decided to implement quota as notified by the union ministry of social justice and empowerment on January 12, 2019.

“We will implement the union government’s notification, following the Constitutional amendment, in letter and spirit. We will provide 10 per cent reservation without any impact on quota for other categories,” said Uttar Pradesh government spokesman and minister for energy Shrikant Sharma without divulging any further details.

SPECIAL FEE FOR COW WELFARE

After deciding to levy cow welfare cess on toll tax and excise etc early this month, the state cabinet on Friday decided to levy special fees on manufacturing, bottling, importing and consuming of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer etc to generate additional funds for welfare of progeny of cows and bring up and maintain cow shelters for them in Uttar Pradesh.

Sharma said the special fees would generate an estimated additional revenue of Rs 165 crore. Amount of special fees would go up following installation of new distilleries and increase in bottling capacities of these distilleries.

A special fee of Re 1 to Rs 3 per bottle would be levied on bottling of IMFL and beer (barring economy category). A special fee of 50 paise to Rs 2 per bottle would be levied on IMFL/beer manufactured in the state’s distilleries. On consumption of IMFL a special fee of Rs 10 per bottle would be levied while on consumption of beer the rate of special fee would be Rs 5 per bottle. The state government is yet to clarify whether it still proposed to levy cess on excise to generate additional funds for the welfare of cows.

On January 1, 2019 the state cabinet had decided to levy 0.5 per cent cow welfare cess on toll tax and increase ‘mandi’ fee cess from 1 per cent to 2 per cent and earmark 0.5 per cent of profits of public sector undertakings (PSUs) to mobilise funds to set up and run temporary cow shelters in the state. It had decided to levy excise cess too. A decision about rate excise cess, however, has not been taken as yet.

The state cabinet had then also decided to use rural job guarantee scheme funds (MNREGA) for construction of temporary cow shelters.

MUGHALSARAI TEHSIL NAMED AFTER UPADHYAY

On Friday, the cabinet also decided to rename Mughalsarai tehsil of Chandauli district after BJP ideologue Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The Mughalsarai city and railway station have been already renamed after Upadhyay.

First Published: Jan 19, 2019 11:12 IST