Cabinet approves draft of C’garh Appropriation Bill

 

 Staff Reporter

Chhattisgarh Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Saturday approved the draft of Chhattisgarh Appropriation Bill-2025 for presentation of the State Budget for the financial year 2025-26 in the upcoming budget session of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, beginning from February 24. Talking to media persons at Mantralaya, Nava Raipur after the cabinet meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao said that in the cabinet meeting several important decisions were taken.

 

The draft of Chhattisgarh Appropriation Bill-2025 was approved for presentation of the third Supplementary Estimates for the financial year 2024-2025 in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly. The Cabinet has decided to expand the list of exempted institutions in Rule 4 of Chhattisgarh State Store Purchase Rules-2002 to ensure availability of new, improved varieties and quality seeds to the farmers of the state. Seeds will be procured by the Seed Corporation from the registered seed producing farmers of the state. To fulfil the requirement, the seed producer cooperative societies of the state, the Government of India and the institutions selected as empanelled agencies in various schemes by the Government of India,

 

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), Societies of Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Seed Producers and Marketing Federation, the institutions selected as Central Nodal Seed Agency in various schemes by the Government of India will be selected from the institution or agency quoting the lowest price from the offer letter issued by the Seed Corporation. The Chhattisgarh cabinet has approved a government guarantee of Rs 3,300 crore for the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED). This funding will enable MARKFED to pay farmers the support price for paddy procured during the Kharif marketing year 2024-25. In addition to the financial guarantee, the cabinet also approved several important drafts.

 

These include the Chhattisgarh Loktantra Senani Samman Vidheyak-2025, the Governor's address for the fifth session of the Sixth Legislative Assembly (budget session), and the Indian Stamp Act-1899 (Chhattisgarh Amendment) Bill-2025. The amendment to the Stamp Act will revise stamp duty rates for bank guarantee deeds. The cabinet also made a significant decision regarding forest service officers. They approved the creation of posts to provide in situ scale equivalent to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) on a non-functional basis. This applies to Additional Principal Chief Conservators of Forests (APCCF) from the 1992-1994 batch who have completed 30 years of qualifying service in the Indian Forest Service's Chhattisgarh cadre. This decision will result in the promotion of five APCCFs: Arun Kumar Pandey, Prem