Himachal Cabinet approves monthly incentive for women of Spiti

Shimla, May 3 The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, on Wednesday decided to provide Rs 1,500 per month as Indira Gandhi Mahila Samman Nidhi to all eligible women of the Spiti Valley, including Buddhist nuns, of above 18 years.

It was decided to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee comprising Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri as Chairman and Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar and Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh as members to formulate a White Paper on state's financial position.

The cabinet also gave its nod to introduce e-stamping for the collection of stamp duty to promote ease-of-doing business. It decided to stop printing of physical stamp papers with immediate effect and to authorise stamp vendors as authorised collection centres.

It also gave its nod to continue with a dual system of stamps, i.e. physical stamp paper and e-stamp paper from April 1 to March 31, 2024, and after April 1, 2024, physical stamp paper will discontinue completely, an official statement said.

The Cabinet decided to give Rs 600 in lieu of school uniform through direct benefit transfer to all eligible students.

It also decided to increase the honorarium of Nambardars in the Revenue Department from Rs 3,200 to Rs 3,700 per month as per the budget announcement, which will benefit about 3,177 people.

The Cabinet also gave nod to increase the honorarium of Revenue Chowkidars or part-time workers from Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 per month and it will benefit around 1,950 people.

It gave approval to increase the court fee rates from Rs 6 to Rs 20 for filing any application or petition in the revenue courts or applying attestation of affidavit or any other documents in civil courts other than the high court.

The Cabinet decided to constitute Atal Tunnel Planning Area and freezing of the existing land use of Atal Tunnel Planning Area which includes revenue villages of Lahaul-Spiti district.

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