Assam Cabinet takes several decisions including to withdraw petty criminal cases
Guwahati: In the weekly Assam Cabinet meeting held on Sunday under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took several important decisions.
“In today’s #AssamCabinet, we took a host of decisions with regard to clearing backlog of cases in courts, establishment of new universities, roadmap on disaster risk reduction, upgrading polytechnics & ITIs, streamlining land acquisition, filling up posts of Bodo teachers, etc.”, CM tweeted.
State cabinet ordered to a cleared backlog of cases by invoking Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, all petty criminal matters that are pending in Assam’s subordinate courts must be dismissed within six months.”
“Instruction for withdrawal of cases and authorisation to Public Prosecutor and Addl/Asstt Public Prosecutor for filing an appropriate petition on the next date fixed for respective cases along with detailed SOP to be issued immediately”, an official said.
“The benefits of reduction in the backlog of cases, allowing the courts to devote time for serious offences and other cases, decongestion of jails by releasing under trial prisoners who are accused in aforesaid petty cases and relief for witnesses who have to spend valuable time, money to attend hearings, and ensure right to speedy trial, under Article 21 ”, official said.
State cabinet also approved the Assam state policy for the transfer of development rights for streamlining the process of land acquisition for the redevelopment of inner-city zones.
Earlier, on August 15, the Assam government withdraw 100,000 cases relating to minor offences including criminal cases registered over social media posts to reduce the burden on the lower judiciary.
The state cabinet also approved the Assam Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Roadmap, 2030 as a vision document to reduce losses and damages as well as strengthen the resilience of communities/systems for various disasters/ climate change risks.
The official said that the adoption of the Assam DRR roadmap and the issue of notification for implementation of action plans by respective departments are to be coordinated by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority.
Meanwhile, Cabinet also gave approval to the establishment of two private universities – Girijananda Chowdhury University, Assam with its main campus at Azara, Guwahati, and constituent campus at Dekargaon, Tezpur; and Pragjyotishpur University with its campus at Hajongbari, Chandrapur under Kamrup (M) district under the Assam Private Universities Act 2007
The state Cabinet also gave administrative approval of about Rs. 366 crores for upgrading 34 Polytechnics and 43 Government ITIs into Centres of Excellence in association with Tata Technologies Limited at the ratio of 87:13 share.
“Overall project cost: Rs.2,390 crore”, said the official.
“The project will provide opportunities to 15,000-20,000 students every year to learn new technologies related to Industry 4.0”, officially added.
