Ahead of Delhi Assembly elections, the Centre has made five big announcements including ownership rights for slum dwellers in Delhi, increase in minimum support price for farmers on rabi crop
New Delhi: The Centre has made five big announcements in a press meet including ownership of land to 40 lakh slum dwellers and hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) on rabi crops in Delhi.
Accordingly, the Centre will give ownership rights to 40 lakh people living in unauthorised colonies in Delhi.
Explaining the same, Union minister Hardeep Puri said that ownership rights will be conferred to people who are living in slums in Delhi, irrespective of whether they are on private or government land. In addition, these people can obtain loans to construct homes in the colonies now.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar described this as a "historic decision". The announcement has come before Assembly election in Delhi.
In another important decision, the government has declared that state-run telecom companies MTNL and BSNL will be merged.
The decision was announced by Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. "The government is neither shutting nor divesting stake in MTNL and BSNL," he said.
Currently, both MTNL and BSNL are facing financial crisis due to intense competition in the telecom sector.
The government is also likely to add more benefits into voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for BSNL and MTNL employees.
Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's thinking, that we can do this. This is not politics...they will get parks, electricity and a sewer system."
Other three major decisions of the Centre include hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) on rabi crops.
The Union government also announced that there will be more players in the petrol market. Also, companies with turnover of about Rs 250 crore can soon enter the fuel retail business. This also include petrol, diesel, LNG and CNG.
The last important announcement made was that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) cadre will be reviewed. This is an exercise mooted after 18 years as the last review was conducted in 2001. In 2001, the strength of the armed forces was 32,000. The current strength of the ITBP is around 90,000.
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.