Union Cabinet has approved two thousand crore rupees development package for onetime settlement of 36,384 displaced families from Pakistan occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Chhamb. It follows announcement of Prime Minister’s Development Package for Jammu and Kashmir in November last year.

An official release said, 5.5 lakh rupees cash benefit per family will be disbursed to enable them to earn an income and subsist their livelihood. The amount will be released to the State government for disbursal to eligible families through Direct Benefit Transfer.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for liberalization, simplification and rationalization of the existing visa regime. The approval will facilitate entry of foreigners for tourism, business and medical purposes. This is expected to stimulate economic growth and make Skill India, Digital India, Make in India and other flagship initiatives of the government successful.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to notify inclusion, amendments in the Central List of Other Backward Classes in Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.

The changes will enable the persons belonging to these castes and communities to avail the benefits of reservation in Government services and posts as well as in Central Educational Institutions as per the existing policy.

They will also become eligible for benefit under the various welfare schemes, scholarships being administered by the Central Government which are at present available to the persons belonging to the Other Backward Classes.

The Cabinet has approved closure of Kota Unit of Instrumentation Ltd. and transfer of Palakkad Unit of the company to the Kerala government.

The Cabinet has approved amendments in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 to repeal the existing Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 during the current winter Session of Parliament.

The amendments were necessitated as the existing Act of 1995 is not fully in conformity with United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to which India is signatory.

Under the proposed amendments, responsibility has been cast upon the appropriate governments to take effective measures to ensure that the persons with disabilities enjoy their rights equally with others. Under it , disability has been defined and the types of disabilities have been increased from existing 7 to 21.

The Central Government will have the power to add more types of disabilities.

The Union Cabinet has also approved the Mumbai Urban Transport Project Phase-III. The estimated cost of project is 8 thousand 679 crore rupees with completion cost of around 11 thousand crore rupees.

The project is expected to be completed in the next 5 years. The areas covered by this project are Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Mumbai districts of Maharashtra.

The Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval to the negotiating position adopted by India at the recent Meeting of Parties (MoP) to the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention for Protection of Ozone Layer.

The meeting was held in October this year in Kigali, Rwanda. The negotiations at Kigali were aimed at including Hydrofluoro Carbons (HFCs) in the list of chemicals to regulate their production and consumption and phase them down over a period of time with financial assistance from the Multilateral Fund created under the Montreal Protocol. HFCs are not ozone depleting but global warming substance and if controlled, can contribute substantially to limiting the global temperature and advance actions for addressing climate change.

It also approved the proposal of the Environment Ministry to argue for adoption of an appropriate baseline years from out of 3 options within a range of 2024 to 2030 with freeze years in a subsequent year.

During negotiations held at Kigali India successfully negotiated the baseline years and freeze years which will allow sufficient room for the growth of the concerned sectors using refrigerants being manufactured domestically thus ensuring unhindered growth with least additional cost and maximum climate benefits.