A meeting of the Council of Ministers was held at Mantralaya under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday. The Cabinet has approved formation of ‘Shri Ramchandra Path-Gaman Trust’ for the development of Shri Ramchandra Path Gaman areas. There will be 33 members in the trust. It will have 28 ex-officio trustees and 5 non-official trustees. The maximum tenure of non-official trustees will be three years. Expert committees can be constituted from time to time to conduct the activities of the trust. The Culture Department will be competent for the institutional arrangement of the trust. A project management unit will be constituted for the smooth functioning of the trust. It will have a total of 7 posts of officers and employees. Approval has been given for creation of 32 new posts, including Chief Executive Officer, for conducting the activities of the trust. On this the annual financial burden will be more than Rs 1.57 crore.

Increase in financial assistance to writers and artists and their dependents facing financial problems: In the sequence of the announcement of Chief Minister Chouhan, the Cabinet has approved the hike in the amount of assistance to the scholars, litterateurs/artists and their dependents facing financial problems by the Directorate of Culture under the Culture Department. The monthly assistance amount per family artist/writer has been increased from Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000. Along with this, approval has been given to give Rs 3,500 assistance to the family on the death of the artist/writer. Increase of 150 MBBS seats in Sagar Medical College: The Cabinet has sanctioned the increase of 150 MBBS seats in Sagar Medical College. At present, the admission capacity of 100 MBBS seats approved for graduate course has been increased to 250 MBBS seats. For this, administrative approval of Rs 200.31 crore has been given.

Approval of the scheme Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO): The Cabinet decided to implement the new state-funded scheme Formation and Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) with the aim of encouraging the formation of at least 2 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in every development block in the State. Such FPOs will be encouraged in the scheme which have not been formed with the assistance of any other organisation. Handholding will be provided to these FPOs. This will help the FPO members to use quality inputs, advanced agricultural machinery, post harvest techniques. Also, they can be linked to the market. The scheme will be implemented through the Director, Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development.

Approval of development of e-municipality 2.0 portal: The Cabinet approved the development, implementation and operation of the second phase of the e-municipality project e-municipality 2.0 with the aim of continuing all the citizen services and departmental works being provided through the e-municipality portal through digital means. e-municipality 2.0 portal will be developed in 2 years and it will be operated and maintained for 5 years. This project will be of 7 years. The new system will include 16 modules and 24 citizen services. The project will be based on IT infrastructure and hardware cloud technology. The estimated expenditure on the entire project will be Rs 200 crore. With this, citizens will get services through quick and online medium and departmental works can be implemented with transparent and better management. MoU to develop and operate Datia airstrip under Udan Scheme: The Cabinet decided to execute O&M agreement and CNS/ATM MoU to develop and operate the Datia airstrip under the Udan Scheme by the Airports Authority of India on behalf of the State Government. In the first phase, air services will start on Datia-Bhopal and Datia-Khajuraho routes. Thus air services will be available for common citizens from Datia as well.