Says Amnesty Scheme for power sector in offing
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Friday announced reservation of 5 percent for Paharies speaking people and 2 percent for OSCs at a press conference, he addressed here after the conclusion of Independence Day main function.
The Chief Minister also announced reduction of Electricity Duty by 12 percent bringing it down from present 22 percent to 10 percent. He also ordered for implementation of new Amnesty Scheme for power sector.
The Chief Minister said that while his government has provided 40 percent more power to the people during his present tenure, he wanted to give them further relief by way of reducing electricity duty. He said the change in the fee structure is the jurisdiction of the State Electricity Regulatory Authority (SERA), as such, he could provide the relief to the people by way of reducing the electricity duty.
Omar Abdullah said that his government had persuaded the Central Government for declaring Pahari speaking people as Schedule Tribes and he had expected that the UPA-II Government would decide in this regard but that didn’t happen. “In order to give relief to the Pahari speaking people as also accommodate the demand of OSCs, I announce 5 percent reservation quota for Pahari speaking people and 2 percent in favour of OSCs”, he said adding that OSCs are presently enjoying 2 percent reservation and the increase of more 2 percent will raised it to 4 percent. He said he would continue to pursue the declaration of Schedule Tribe status for Pahari speaking people at the Central level.
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