Uttarakhand grants concession to national parties to build office in Dehradun

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is building a new state headquarters in Dehradun and its foundation laying ceremony was held virtually in October last year.

Uttarakhand on Wednesday allowed concession to national political parties for building offices in capital Dehradun and also extended the maximum age limit of candidates appearing in government recruitment examination by one year to offset the disadvantage caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

Uttarakhand government’s Cabinet chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami took several important decisions on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)

“In the existing provision of Dehradun master plan-2025, there was concession in fees and other charges on the construction of government buildings. The government has now agreed to include all the national political parties in that provision after which they too will be provided the concession in construction of their offices,” Cabinet minister and government spokesperson Subodh Uniyal said while giving out details of important decisions taken by the state Cabinet chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is building a new state headquarters in Dehradun and its foundation laying ceremony was held virtually in October last year. The party’s current state headquarters is in a residential colony in the state capital and it cited the “inconvenience” caused to the residents as the reason for the shifting.

Uniyal also explained the rationale for granting age concession to applicants for government jobs.

“Due to Covid-19 pandemic, many recruitment examinations were not held or postponed. Because of this, many aspirants crossed the eligible age [for appearing in the examination]. Hence, the government decided to extend them a concession of one year so that they are able to sit in the recruitment examinations. It will be applicable till June 30 this year,” he said.

The government has also cleared creation of 501 new vacancies for management of three existing government medical colleges in the state.

“The vacancies will be created for the government medical colleges in Dehradun, Haldwani and Srinagar. Apart from this, 44 new vacancies will be created in the super specialty hospital in Haldwani,” said Uniyal.

He said the state government also decided to include as many specially-abled people as possible from the state in the national food programme.

“Under this, those specially-abled persons with a monthly income of less than ₹4,000 will be provided ration under Antyodaya programme, while those having a monthly income of less than ₹15,000 would be included in the Primary Family programme and will be provided ration accordingly,” said Uniyal.