UP Cabinet Meeting: 20% quota cleared for Agniveers, shut Mathura mill to turn into ethanol plant

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath chairs the Cabinet meeting in Lucknow on Tuesday. (Express Photo)

From recruiting former Agniveers to increasing allowances of Prantiya Rakshak Dal, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday took a series of decisions, including clearing the proposal to establish an ethanol plant at the closed Chhata Sugar Mill in Mathura.

With Assembly elections due next year, the Cabinet gave approval to 20 per cent horizontal reservation in direct recruitment to the posts of Jail Warder and Enforcement Constable in the Transport Department for former Agniveers, who will be given special relaxation of three years in the maximum age limit.

“Former Agniveers will be given the benefit of this reservation in the social category. A provision has been made to deduct their 4-year period of service while calculating the age. This will enable a larger number of former Agniveers to participate in the recruitment process,” Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said after the Cabinet meeting that was chaired by Yogi Adityanath.

For Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) volunteers, the Cabinet approved increasing their daily duty allowance from Rs 500 to Rs 600, as well as extending the Chief Minister PRD Cashless Medical Scheme to provide cashless medical facilities to them and their family members.

“The honorarium of a PRD volunteer performing 30 days of duty will directly increase by Rs 3,000 per month. This will benefit 27,794 PRD volunteers and their families across the state,” Khanna said, adding this would cost an additional burden of Rs 101.44 crore annually on the state exchequer.

“For the remaining months of the current financial year, an immediate provision of Rs 45 crore has been made through supplementary grants,” he said.

The Cabinet also cleared the proposal to set up an ethanol plant at the closed Chhata Sugar Mill in Mathura. Sugarcane Development Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary said the extension plant will cost more than Rs 200 crore and will operate for 11 months in a year. “This mill had been closed 19 years ago. During the previous Samajwadi Party government, not even one rupee was paid towards it. The annual production capacity of the plant will be 3.96 crore litres. After the sugarcane crushing season ends, ethanol will also be produced from maize and paddy,” Chaudhary added.