Diwali knocking, govt loosens purse strings

With the state assembly polls around the corner, the Gujarat government has started to distribute bonanzas among different classes of voters including citizens and government employees.

The government on Thursday made several announcements that included toll-free roads, increase in the salary packages of government employees and the general development control regulations have been made easier for town planning in the state as well.

The deputy chief minister of Gujarat, Nitin Patel, made these announcements just a few hours before the press conference by chief election commissioner AK Joti held in New Delhi. At this press conference, Joti announced the dates for the polls in Himachal Pradesh. These dates indicate that the polls in Gujarat may be held in the second week of December. Previously they were expected to be held in November.

While making the announcements in Gujarat, the Dy CM Nitin Patel said, "The state government has taken these decisions after due consideration of representations received from various groups of people. These announcements cover a cross-section of people from the society and are aimed at bringing the living standards of people on a higher level, along with making many facilities for them."

Considering the festivities around the corner, Patel added, "These announcements are like sharing happiness among the people of Gujarat at the time of Diwali and Gujarati New Year, both of which fall next week."

In the announcements that were made, the Gujarat government has now made the SP Ring Road that runs around Ahmedabad city toll-free. Besides this, the government has increased the dearness allowances of its employees and pensioners, distributed Diwali bonus among class IV employees, and has decided to give permanent employee status to all the sanitation staff in different civic bodies.

Bumper Diwali for govt employees, state declares DA hike and bonus

The Gujarat government has tried to gain favour of its employees, which is a great base of voters in the state, through a bonanza package announced on Thursday.

The state government has announced an increase of one per cent in the dearness allowance (DA) of its class IV employees against their basic and Diwali bonus. The Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel made this announcement.

As per the announcement, over 8.20 lakh employees and pensioners will benefit due to this development. Following the announcement, the Gujarat government will incur the additional financial burden of Rs. 273 crore per annum. The increase in DA will come into effect from July 1, 2017 and the arrears will be paid in cash to the employees in their next salary.

Uniform GDCR rolled out, expected to boost construction sector

Four months after the state Cabinet approved uniform General Development Control Regulations (GDCR) for the construction sector, the state government said that the regulations have been implemented from Thursday. “Due to the implementation of common GDCR, all municipal corporations and municipalities will be able to approve construction projects of uniform height depending on the width of the road from now on,” said Dy CM Nitin Patel. He added that the urban development authorities and municipalities have been divided into different categories.

Like Ahmedabad and Vadodara, which get the benefit of the transit corridor, final plots within 200 metre on both sides of 45 metre wide roads in Surat will also be eligible for getting FSI of 4. Similarly, final plots within 200 metre of 36 metre wide roads in Surat and Vadodara will get FSI of 3.6.

SP Ring Road becomes toll-free for cars, three-wheelers from today

The state government has exempted passenger cars and three-wheelers from paying toll on the Sardar Patel (SP) Ring Road in Ahmedabad. Dy CM Nitin Patel announced that from Friday cars and rickshaws will not be required to pay toll on the Ring Road.

“The toll exemption will benefit thousands of people living in East and West Ahmedabad. It will not only save time for them but also money that they were paying as toll so far,” Patel announced.

He also said that Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) will pay approximately Rs 8 crore a year to the toll tax company to compensate for its revenue loss due to the exemption.

The 76-km Sardar Patel Ring Road was built by AUDA at a cost of over Rs 350 crore and was opened in 2004. It encircles the whole city. Officials said that an estimated 11,000 passenger cars and rickshaws use the road daily. It also connects to the Ahmedabad-Vadodara National Expressway.

A number of residential hubs have come up along the Ring Road over the years.

Dousing Patels’ fury: Govt withdraws criminal cases against community

The Patel community is seething with wrath against the ruling BJP on several issues while the state government on Thursday announced to withdraw the criminal cases against the youth of the community across Gujarat filed after the Ahmedabad rally by PAAS leader Hardik Patel.

The dy CM Nitin Patel and minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja made the announcement of the withdrawal of 136 cases of different nature. Earlier the government had withdrawn 109 cases and another 136 cases have been withdrawn, totalling to 245 cases. The government is also contemplating the withdrawal of the sedition case against Patel and his colleagues.

The government also made an announcement for the sanitation staff, belong ing to the Dalit community, that work in government and civic bodies.

The government has relaxed restrictions on civic bodies, to give permanent employment to sanitation staff. The dependents of an  employee will get ex-gratia jobs in case of the death or permanent disability of an employee during his service.