The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to fill vacancies in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories in the Central government ahead of the Assembly elections in five states, including the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls. The decision is likely to benefit about 50,000 people, including a good number in UP.
The Cabinet decision for filling up pending vacancies of SCs and STs has come after another decision to allow 4.5 per cent reservation for the minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota. The Centre had initiated last such exercise in 2008, while the Cabinet note acknowledged that the government had failed to fill up the pending vacancies. However, sources said that the decision would be implemented after the polls in the five states are over but the move is likely to boost the election campaign of the Congress, which is making efforts to reach out to dalits, who hold the key to the fortune of political parties in UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand.
The Cabinet in another decision gave its nod to a proposal to sanction over `19,000 crores for the Udhampur-Baramulla rail project. The major 209-km-long infrastructure project was announced about 17 years ago in a bid to connect Kashmir Valley with Jammu. The funds will be utilised for building rail tracks from Katra in Jammu to Qazigund in the valley, while the deadline for completion of the project is 2017. While work on 119-km Qazigund-Baramulla track had been completed, it is still underway for Udhampur-Katra and Katra- Qazigund sections for which deadlines have been set at 2013 and 2017 respectively.
The Cabinet, however, deferred a decision on a proposal of disinvestment department to raise `40,000 crores from divestment of PSUs through buyback and other modes. Sources said that though the matter came up for discussion, a decision was deferred. While the department of disinvestment (DoD) had identified about two-dozen cash rich public sector enterprises with a total balance of nearly `2 lakh crores, it had sought opinion of respective ministries on disinvestment through the buyback mode. However, a number of ministries were stated to have been against the proposal.