The state administrative council which met here Wednesday under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik approved in principle a proposal submitted by the Home department for construction of 20,000 flats to be allotted to the state police personnel on a self-financing basis.
An official spokesman said that 10,000 of these flats will be constructed in Kashmir division and 10,000 in Jammu division at one or two locations, subject to the availability of land.
These flats which would be in multi-storeyed apartments will consist of 2 BHK (800-1000 sft), 3 BHK (1200 sft) and 4 BHK (1500 sft) flats.
The land for the flats, to be constructed in two years for intending police personnel, will be provided by the government on a nominal basis.
“The government will facilitate provision of loan from J&K Bank and other banks, if required. A demand survey will be conducted by the director general of police to determine the exact demand of flats. This will be completed by 1 December 2018,” the spokesman said, adding that the construction of 20,000 houses “will be a huge welfare measure for the police personnel.”
LOs POSITIONED FOR 10 CITIES
The SAC approved positioning of designated liaison officers of J&K government in cities of New Delhi, Noida/Meerut, Chandigarh, Aligarh, Bhopal, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Jaipur to coordinate with students of the state pursuing higher education in other parts of the country, whenever they are faced with situations or “incidents related to their regional identity.”
“Around 20,000 students of J&K are pursuing higher studies in various colleges in other states. This year around 3820 students got admission to various undergraduate courses. Since 2012, J&K students have also availed opportunities to obtain admission in outside state colleges to undergraduate course under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme,” the spokesman said.
The liaison officers will report directly to the resident commissioner, J&K, at New Delhi and coordinate with him and the state government regarding issues faced by students of J&K.
“The higher education department will be overall coordinating department in the state government. Each location will have a ‘help center’, a temporary office with basic facilities including telephone/internet. The details about the ‘help centers’ will be widely published. Students, wherever necessary, would also be engaged as assistant liaison officers, on a stipend/honorarium,” the spokesman said.
“Positioning LOs in major cities where concentration of J&K students is higher will give the students greater sense of safety and security as they can easily contact the liaison officers in case of any apprehensions or trouble. This would also remove apprehensions among the intending students who wish to study in outside state colleges and encourage them to move out of state for higher studies and better pursuits,” the spokesman said.
WAIVER FOR FLOOD-HIT TRADERS
The SAC also approved waiving off demands raised by the assessing authorities of the commercial taxes department against 1573 flood-hit dealers by rejecting their input tax credit claim for the stocks destroyed in the floods of September, 2014.
The spokesman said the trade associations and chambers had been demanding waiver of demands raised by the assessing authorities against the flood affected dealers, by rejecting their input tax credit claim for the stocks destroyed in the floods of September, 2014, in view of the fact that the goods had got destroyed.
“Taking into consideration the magnitude of the 2014 flood disaster, the misery it brought to all the sections of the society, traders included, and the fact that the stocks got destroyed in the flood, the SAC settled the long-pending demand of the traders,” the spokesman said.
NOD TO HIRING STAFF ON ACADEMIC ARRANGEMENT
The SAC cleared a proposal of the school education department for utilisation of services of teaching staff hired on academic arrangement for two months of winter vacations (session 2018-19) in the winter zone, from 16 November 2018 to 15 January 2019 or till regular selections are made by the department on the recommendation of the recruiting agencies, whichever is earlier.
“The decision has been taken keeping in view the requirements of the education department; compensate the loss of academic session due to unforeseen circumstances in Kashmir Valley and gainful utilisation of the services of these teachers in keeping with their experience and eagerness to work. They will be utilised to provide winter tuition to students so that they perform better academically,” the spokesman said.
ReT SCHEME TO BE CLOSED DOWN
The SAC reviewed the Rehabar-e-Taleem scheme vis-à-vis its efficacy in the “changed education scenario” in J&K.
The ReT scheme was launched in 2000. It envisaged engagement of teachers from local areas who had to be paid remuneration of Rs 1500 per-month initially (later revised to Rs 3000 per-month) and had to be regularised after five years of continuous service.
In the meantime, a centrally sponsored scheme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was implemented in J&K in 2003 which has a provision for opening of new primary schools as well as upgradation of primary schools to upper primary level to increase access to education to every child.
“In view of the above, the State stopped engagement of teachers under original ReT scheme but continued engagement of teachers under SSA on the pattern of the ReT scheme. More than 41000 teachers have been appointed as ReT/SSA teachers so far,” the spokesman said.
“After critical analysis of the teaching staff in the school education department across the state under regular recruitment, SSA and RMSA, it has been observed that Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) is in excess than the prescribed national norm. The State has a PTR of 1:12 and 1:9 in primary and upper primary schools respectively which is higher than the prescribed national norm of 1:40 and 1:35 respectively. In addition there are many administrative and legal issues with the ReT scheme/process, including declining quality of education,” the spokesman said.
“In view of these issues, the SAC after considering the pros and cons, decided to formally close the ReT scheme with an enabling provision that the teachers already engaged under the scheme shall continue to be governed by the erstwhile scheme till their regularisation or otherwise. The proposal for this is being finalised and will be put up to the SAC next week,” the spokesman said. “The decision would help the school education department to consolidate the position and rationalise the staff strength in various schools and also move towards having a single cadre of teachers rather than multiple types of teachers performing the same work.”
LAUNCH OF AYUSHMAN BHARAT SCHEME APPROVED
The SAC approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna in J&K from 1 December 2018.
“The scheme will provide health insurance coverage to about 6.13 lakh families figuring in socio-economic caste census database to the tune of Rs 5 lakh per family per year with secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. There will be no cap on family size and all families included in the socio-economic and caste census will be entitled to claim the benefits,” the spokesman said, adding that the scheme offers treatment in any of the 13,000 empanelled hospitals in the country under 1350 medical packages.
“Institutional mechanism has already been put in place with the constitution of State Health Agency, District Implementation Units and Grievance Redressal mechanism,” the spokesman said.
Around 136 public and private hospitals have been empanelled in the State.
JOINING TIME OF 254 MEDICAL OFFICERS EXTENDED
The SAC approved the proposal of the health and medical education department to grant extension in the joining time of 254 medical officers as a one-time exception.
“These MOs shall be entitled to all service benefits including seniority from the actual date of their joining the health department in accordance with the service rules. Their appointments shall remain protected for the period only for which extension has been sought,” the spokesman said. “On joining the department they will have to work in far flung and backward areas of the state for a minimum period of five years.”
“Further, in future selections/appointments of medical officers, the selectees shall not be allowed to continue with PG/tenures of senior residency/registrarship/demonstratorship and they will have only one choice either to opt for appointment or opt out and go for PG/tenures of senior residency/ registrarship/demonstratorship,” the spokesman said.
“The decision will help further improve patient-care in hospitals across the state particularly in remote far flung and difficult areas,” the spokesman said.