The State Cabinet in its meeting held today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur hailed the Union budget by terming it an historic that meets the expectations of all sections of the society and would set the developmental agenda for the country for the years to come.The cabinet also appreciated various major announcements made in the budget for farmers, poor, women, students, businessmen and middle class. The Cabinet appreciated the path breaking pension initiative for 10 crore workers of unorganized sector, exempting income up to Rs 5 lakhs from income tax, reforms in stamp duty and highest ever budgetary allocation of Rs. 3 lakh crore for Defence.The Cabinet also hailed the Union budget for announcing the new scheme “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)” to extend direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year to farmer families, having cultivable land up to 2 hectares and for "Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog" to upscale sustainable genetic upgradation of cow resources and to enhance production and productivity of cows is also a welcome step. This cabinet decision would benefit the farmers of the State immensely, as almost majority of the farmers would be covered under this scheme, as they have land holdings less than two hectares.
It appreciated the decision to announce 'Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan' to provide pensionary benefits to at least 10 crore labourers and workers in the unorganised sector which would be one of the largest pension schemes of the world in next five years.The Cabinet gave its approval to upgrade Government Middle School Shawala to Government High School and Government High School Damyana in Shimla district to Senior Secondary Schools along-with creation of filling up of 10 posts of different categories.The Cabinet gave its nod to introduce ‘The Himachal Pradesh Bovine Breeding Bill, 2019’ for improvement of bovine by regulating bovine breeding activities including use of bovine breeding bulls for production of bovine semen, processing, storage, sale and distribution of bovine semen, and artificial insemination and any other breeding activity in bovines in the State. This Bill would be introduced in the State Legislative Assembly.