Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 31: The State Administrative Council (SAC) which met here today under the chairmanship of Governor, N N Vohra approved the proposal submitted by the General Administration Department (GAD) to increase the cadre strength of the J&K Cadre of IAS from the existing 137 posts to 145.
The recommendations will be sent to the Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT), Government of India.
At present, authorized cadre strength of IAS (J&K Cadre) is 137. Out of these, 75 posts are meant for Direct Recruitment and 62 to be filled up by promotion from State Civil Service (SCS) Officers. The Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, provide for a periodic review of the cadre of IAS to be carried out after every 5 years.
On the basis of the recommendation of the Establishment- Cum-Selection Committee, the proposal for enhancement of the authorized cadre strength from the existing 137 posts to 145, for recommending the same to the Department of Personnel and Trainings, Government of India, was placed before the State Administrative Council.
With this increase, the quota for promotion of KAS Officers to IAS would go up from 62 posts to 66.
The SAC asked the PW(R&B) Department to pursue vigorously with the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and NHAI, the case for rationalization of the Toll structure at various Toll Collection Centres in the State.
It also decided that National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) shall be facilitated to start the process of Toll collection at Lakhanpur and at Thandikhui as per National Highway Fee Rules-2008.
For the purpose, NHAI user fee collection shall be integrated with Toll and Entry Tax collection by the State Excise and Commercial Taxes Department. The entire cost of integration of infrastructure will be borne by the NHAI.
The SAC also decided that at Thandikhui, adequate law and order support shall be provided to NHAI to start the collection of toll.
The decision has been taken in order to ensure proper upkeep and maintenance of the Highway as per the prescribed standards.
The SAC also gave nod to the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yogana (PMFBY) in Jammu & Kashmir. The Scheme shall be rolled out from Kharif season-2016 onwards.
The implementation of the Scheme would be landmark towards securing the crops of the farmers and growers against natural calamities, pests and diseases and shall cover all major risks to the crops. It will provide major relief to the farming community against losses suffered by them on account of un-favorable and fluctuating weather and climatic conditions including rain, hail and wind storm, flood, inundation and landslide, drought, dry spells, pests, diseases etc.
The farmer shall have to pay a uniform premium of only 2 % for all Kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all Rabi crop. In case of annual Horticulture and Commercial crops, farmer shall have to pay a premium of only 5 %. The remaining part of the premium subsidy shall be borne by the Centre and the State on 50:50 basis. The State Government will be implementing the Scheme in a phased manner and to begin with, 10 % area is proposed to be covered during 2016-17.
This Scheme is compulsory for the loanee farmers (KCC) and optional for others, but it is envisaged to cover all the farmers in a phased manner within 2 to 3 years depending upon the response towards the Scheme.
Backed up by the setting up of Automatic Weather Stations and carrying out Crop Cutting Experiments (CCE) on scientific basis, the scheme promises to provide prompt and easy settlement of claims through the use of technology like GPS, remote sensing and drones to assess actual crop damage/losses.
The Scheme shall operate on the principle of ‘Area Approach’ in the selected Defined Areas called Insurance unit (IU). A high level Committee of the State Government will notify Crops and Defined Areas to be covered during the season as per the operational guidelines of PMFBY.
The State Agricultural Production Department has been asked to work out necessary details immediately for implementation of the Scheme with effect from Kharif Crop 2016-17 and notify the schedule accordingly. It has also been decided that adequate publicity be given to the Scheme through radio, electronic and print media. To acquaint the farmers with the benefits accruing out of the Scheme, various institutional mechanisms are being put in place for implementation of the Scheme.
Meanwhile, in order to streamline the conduct and declared business of the Societies and NGOs, the SAC approved the Jammu and Kashmir Societies Registration (Amendment) Act, 2016.
In recent times, it had been observed that there has been a mushroom growth of NGOs/ Societies under Societies Registration Act and there are increasing allegations /complaints against many registered NGOs/Societies for indulging into different unreasonable activities. Some of the NGOs/Societies have also been noticed to have carried out financial irregularities /misappropriation /uncalled for dealings.
The existing Jammu and Kashmir Societies Registration Act, 1998 (1941 A.D.), Act No. VI of Svt. 1998, which was enacted to provide for the registration of Literary, Scientific (Charitable and other Societies) had no provision for de-registration which made it difficult to deal with various types of complaints/allegations against many registered NGOs/ Societies. Now, in order to streamline the conduct and declared business of the Societies and NGOs, the amendments in J&K Societies Registration Act, 1998 (1940 AD) were proposed by Industries and Commerce Department.
Under this provision of de-registration, the Societies/NGOs can be de-registered on the grounds of indulging into other activities other than those for which it has been registered, indulges in activity pre-judicial to the security of the State or maintenance of law and order in the State, if the accounts of the Society are not audited by a certified Chartered Accountant annually and on the basis of verified complaints of malpractices.
The order of deregistration of any Society shall not be passed unless the Society has been given an opportunity of showing cause against the action proposed to be taken in regard to it and the cause, if any shown, has been considered by the Registrar. Moreover, an appeal against an order made under Sub Section-(1) may be preferred to the Government within one month from the date of communication of such order.
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