Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Cabinet meeting after assumption of office for his third term on Wednesday took major decisions for farm, ports, renewable energy, criminal justice and civil aviation sectors.
The Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister approved the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for all mandated Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2024-25. Two lakh godowns will also be built.
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Briefing newspersons, Information and Broadcasting and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the financial outgo for the MSP decision will be Rs 2 lakh crore, which will be Rs 35,000 crore more than the previous season. In all 14 crops will be covered.
The decision will ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce. The highest absolute increase in MSP over the previous year has been recommended for oilseeds and pulses, viz., niger seed (Rs 983/- per quintal) followed by sesamum (Rs 632/- per quintal) and tur/arhar (Rs 550/- per quintal).
For paddy, the MSP will be Rs 2300 and Rs 2320 for two categories. Both are Rs 117 higher this year.
The Cabinet approved setting up a Major Port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra. The total project cost will be Rs 76,220 crore, Mr Vaishnaw said. The project was conceived 60 years back.
The Project will be constructed by Vadhavan Port Project Limited (VPPL), an SPV formed by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) with a shareholding of 74% and 26%, respectively. The Vadhavan Port will be developed as an all-weather Greenfield deep draft major port in Vadhavan, Palghar District, Maharashtra. It has potential for 12 lakh jobs.
In the third decision, the Cabinet approved a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for offshore wind energy projects at a total outlay of Rs 7453 crore, including an outlay of Rs 6853 crore for installation and commissioning of 1 GW of offshore wind energy projects (500 MW each off the coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu), and grant of Rs 600 crore for upgradation of two ports to meet logistics requirements for offshore wind energy projects. Mr Vaishnaw said India’s total potential of offshore wind energy is 70,000 megawatts. Undersea power cables will be required for the project.
The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of Airports Authority of India (AAI) for development of Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi, including Construction of New Terminal Building, Apron Extension, Runway Extension, Parallel Taxi Track & Allied works.
The estimated financial outgo of the project will be Rs 2869.65 Crore for enhancing the passenger handling capacity of the airport to 9.9 million passengers per annum (MPPA) from the existing 3.9 MPPA, Mr Vaishnaw said.
In the fifth decision, to ensure more than 90 per cent conviction rate under the new criminal justice laws, the Cabinet approved a proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for a Central Sector Scheme “National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme (NFIES) with a total financial outlay of Rs 2254.43 crore for the period 2024-25 to 2028-29.
The financial outlay of the Scheme will be provisioned by the (MHA) from its own budget. The scheme includes establishment of Campuses of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) and establishment of Central Forensic Science Laboratories in the country, along with enhancement of the existing infrastructure of the Delhi Campus of the NFSU.
