2 new departments to be carved out

BHUBANESWAR: The State Cabinet on Saturday took a slew of decisions, including introduction of e-transit system for transportation of minerals, restructuring of departments and categorisation of public sector enterprises.The Council of Ministers, chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, earlier approved the supplementary budget of Rs 3,940 crore to be placed in the winter session of the Assembly beginning December 9.The meetings continued for more than four hours. But none of the decisions were announced because of the  model code of conduct for the Umerkote bypoll, which remains enforced till Sunday.The Cabinet approved creation of two new departments. One will be called Department of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises and the other Department of Employment, Technical Education and Training. These will be created by reorganising the departments of Industry, Textiles and Handloom and Labour and Employment.After the reorganisation, the Department of Labour and Employment will be renamed as Labour Employment State Insurance Department. Similarly, the Department of Textiles and Handloom will be known as Textiles and Handicrafts Department. A proposal to strengthen the Horticulture Directorate by restructuring the organisation was also approved.Another important decision was the sanction of Government guarantee in favour of Gridco for raising Rs 1,000 cr from the market to tide over its revenue deficit. The food and procurement policy was also approved at the meeting and the procurement target was fixed at 28 lakh tonne.The Cabinet approved the categorisation of the public sector enterprises taking into account their turnover, manpower, profit and loss. The four categories will be bronze, silver, gold and platinum. However, no PSE has so far been categorised in the platinum category.The Cabinet also approved an amendment to the Odisha  Minerals (prevention of theft and illegal mining and regulation) Rules for introduction of e-transit system for transportation of minerals. The e-pass will have barcode with details, including permit number, the place from which minerals have been transported and its destination. This will go a long way in preventing theft of minerals and illegal mining.However, two draft bills for banning polythene use and rationalisation of tax system were deferred.

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