Five day monsoon session from July 16

PATNA The state cabinet on Friday recommended the five-day monsoon session of the state legislature starting July 26

PATNA

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The state cabinet on Friday recommended the five-day monsoon session of the state legislature starting July 26.

The session comes at a time when political atmosphere in the state is high and the opposition leaders are out to corner the government on a number of contentious issues, including alleged Covid mismanagement, burgeoning prices of essential commodities and, most importantly, the growing dissenting voices from within the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In another important measure to check illegal sand mining, the cabinet approved up to 25 times penalty on the vehicles caught carrying sand without appropriate and authentic documents. Officials said penalty for carrying illegally mined sand starts from ₹3,000. Those indulging in illegal mining activities might have to face two-year jail term if found guilty.

Officials said the mines department had to proposed hefty penalty as the government’s earning from the sand mining hardly went up despite substantial increase in the ghat (quarry) settlement charges.

These were among the 10 decisions that the state cabinet chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar took in consultation with cabinet colleagues through a virtual meeting.

The issues affecting construction of much-awaited Ganga pathway are set to be settled after the cabinet cleared a proposal to hand over nearly 40 acres of land, located in Sabalpur area under Sonepur circle of Saran district. The construction of the bridge, parallel to Ashok Rajpath on the southern bed of Ganga, has been suffering delays for want of adequate allocation of land at various spots.