Sonowal Cabinet
Representative photo. Image credit - Twitter

In what might open up avenues for the youths of the state, Assam cabinet on Monday decided to relax the restriction on cultivation and felling of Agar wood in Assam.

The cabinet on Monday decided to waive the mandatory registration for cultivation and felling of Agar wood up to 35 bighas of land, a senior member of the Assam cabinet said this on Monday.

He said the cabinet also decided to set up an international trade centre in Golaghat district of Assam for regulating the sale of Agar wood.

Apart from this, the cabinet also decided to waive the cess on green leaves for three years to the big tea estates to strengthen the tea industry of the state.

The cabinet passed the Assam State Industrial Policy 2019, which will grant power subsidy of Rs. 2 per unit for five years with a cap of maximum Rs. 50 lakh.

It also decided to grant 50 per cent generating subsidy with a cap of maximum Rs. 10 lakh.

Apart from this, the cabinet decided to waive 100 per cent stamp duty for buying land up to Rs. 25 lakh, he said.

The cabinet, during a meeting chaired by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, also decided to grant 75 per cent subsidy for technology transfer projects and 30 per cent subsidy for MSME projects.

“The cabinet has also decided to increase the number of wards of Guwahati Municipal Corporation to 60 and decided that the minimum educational qualification for councillors will be graduates for general candidates, and higher secondary passed for candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC,” he said.

“The cabinet has also two-child policy mandatory for the councillors and that they must have toilets in their house,” he added.

“The cabinet further decided to amend the Assam Municipal Act to make the Higher Secondary pass as mandatory educational qualification for ward commissioners for general candidates while class 10th pass as mandatory qualification for candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC,” the member of the cabinet said.

“The maximum two-child policy will also be applied for them,” he added.

The cabinet on Monday also passed the new film policy, which will grant 25 per cent subsidy for films made at a cost of Rs. 1 crore .

The new policy will also grant Rs. 1 crore subsidy for films winning national awards and Rs. 2 crore for films nominated for Oscars.

The cabinet also decided to collect Rs. 1 from every ticket for the corpus fund for welfare of all the film artistes, he added.

The cabinet also approved subsidy of ? 2.5 lakhs upto a ceiling of ? 20 lakh under Apunar Apun Ghar scheme.

The cabinet approved new syllabus for APSC CCE on lines of UPSC.

“This will help students to take both APSC and UPSC with the same preparation,” the CMO stated on its Twitter handle.

The Cabinet decided to give subsidy of ? 50,000 to students who have taken higher education loans & those who will be taking this year, the CMO tweeted further.