The Himachal Pradesh government gave its nod to transfer the government land in the name of the Railway Department for the construction of a railway line from BG Nangal Dam to Talwara.

The decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting, held here on Wednesday under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Furthermore, to make the attic floor habitable, the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to amend the Rule-16 of HP Town and Country Planning Rules, 2014.

The Cabinet decided to open Rajiv Gandhi Government Model Day Boarding Schools in every assembly segment of the state for providing quality education to the children.

In the first phase, 13 sites have been identified and construction activities will commence shortly.

These schools will have modern facilities like Hi-tech Smart Class Rooms, and play fields.

In addition, children belonging to the pre-primary and primary wings will be provided an open play area where they can play games during the day-boarding time.

The Cabinet gave the go-ahead for notifying ‘Rajiv Gandhi Swarojgar Yojna-2023’ in order to promote self-employment opportunities and to provide a livelihood to the local youth by encouraging entrepreneurship. E-taxis, e-trucks and e-buses, dental facilities, and fishery activities have been brought under the ambit of this scheme.

It accorded sanction for a project of Revenue Enhancement and Capacity Augmentation in Himachal Pradesh. Under the project, the State Taxes and Excise Department will be able to access the real-time data of defaulters of GST.

This project will also have special tools for data preparation in order to take prompt action against the defaulters thereby increasing the revenue for the State exchequer.

Further, in order to grant one-time relief up to 30 June 2023 to the defaulters of Passengers and Goods Tax, the Cabinet accorded its approval to waive off penalty and interest on Goods Tax of Passengers and Goods Tax (PGT). The State Government aims to realize the principal amount of PGT from Goods Carriers in Himachal Pradesh in order to implement Special Road Tax in lieu of PGT.

The Cabinet has approved the Draft Development Plan for the Hatkoti Special Area in the Shimla district and the Draft Development Plan for the Mehatpur Planning Area of the Una district.

It decided to transfer 8 Gram Panchayats from Jal Shakti Division Matiyana to Jal Shakti Division No 1 Kasumpti in district Shimla to facilitate the people of these panchayats.