In the cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, it was decided to remove the night curfew imposed due to Covid-19 epidemic. In addition, people are allowed to participate in outdoor and indoor social, religious, cultural, political and other ceremonies (marriage and funeral) etc. up to 50 percent capacity. In the meeting, it was decided by the government to expedite the payment of the contractors and they will be given arrears amounting to around Rs. 270 crore. The contractors were demanding simplification by amending the mining rules from the government. The limit has been fixed for giving WX form in the crusher but the contractors were not getting this form, due to which their amount of crores is stuck with the Public Works and other departments. The matter of refund of works of contractors before July 1, 2017 is also pending and due to this the contractors have been on strike for 2 days.
The Cabinet approved the amendment in the Himachal Pradesh Minor Minerals (Concession) and Minerals (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules, 2015 to make it the best of small minerals in construction of roads and safety walls, soling of dangs, etc. Use can be ensured. This will ensure easy availability of minerals like stone and sand for construction works especially in rural areas.It was decided in the meeting that the mining authorities would provide permission for the use of small minerals produced during the construction of roads belonging to various departments and agencies of the state government for the same purpose. This will include construction of roads, protection wall, soling of dangs, etc., in which only use of 10 thousand metric tons per month and maximum 20 thousand metric tons per work will be allowed at a time. The report of the engineer in charge who is working for this, which will not be less than the post of assistant engineer, will be considered as the basis. The Cabinet also decided to include a rule in it, which stipulates that if a person is not a mining lease holder and has not violated the rules and has not been able to provide the transit form, he should be paid royalty at prevailing rates and A fine of 25 per cent of the royalty has to be paid.
