Dehradun: The Uttarakhand cabinet which met on Wednesday gave a nod to a proposal to adopt the Centre’s tightened eligibility criteria for public procurement or contract which stipulates specific conditions for bidders of nations sharing land borders with the country, including Pakistan and China.
The state, which shares an international border with both China and Nepal, had in the past passed orders to ban the use of Chinese products in its official works. On Wednesday, an amendment was also made in the Uttarakhand Procurement Policy 2017 to incorporate the changes made by the Centre regarding participation of firms from bordering countries.
Sources said that the move is an indirect attempt to prevent Chinese firms from participating in projects in the state. The Union government in October had tightened the eligibility criteria for public procurements of contracts, stipulating that firms of countries, which share a land border with India, would have to provide details of outsourced parts, goods and sub-contracted works and services, technical issues, country of origin and specification of manufacturers.
Providing further details, urban development minister Madan Kaushik said, “Uttarakhand is a strategically-located state and a lot of factors have been to be kept in mind while floating global tenders. The past few months have seen heightened tension on the border areas. Therefore, it is a matter of concern and also national security and tender bids should be awarded after thorough check and examination.” Though he denied to name any country, he said, “We all know where the tension was in the past few months.”
In another important development, the cabinet approved the education department’s proposal to open higher education institutions in the state from December 15. All private and government colleges, degree colleges, institutes and universities would accordingly restart after a gap of over nine months.
The higher education department is expected to come up with a detailed advisory soon, mentioning the social distancing norms and set guidelines that would have to be followed by college and university authorities.
On the issue of Covid vaccine, authorities said that district and block-level committees had been formed and the required training was being provided to the health staff so that around 20 per cent population of the state can be administered the vaccine in the first phase. The cabinet also cleared the proposal to provide water connection at the rate of Rs100 per connection to the urban poor, which would comprise of people enrolled under the Below Poverty Line list or those from financially-weak backgrounds. Further, the cabinet approved 44 posts of super-speciality for Doon Medical College and 927 posts for Rudrapur Medical College.
Doctors going in for PG courses would have to either choose between a stipend or salary given by the state. Earlier, there was a provision that such doctors would give a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore. The state cabinet has now brought down the bank guarantee to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 1 crore.
The state, which shares an international border with both China and Nepal, had in the past passed orders to ban the use of Chinese products in its official works. On Wednesday, an amendment was also made in the Uttarakhand Procurement Policy 2017 to incorporate the changes made by the Centre regarding participation of firms from bordering countries.
Sources said that the move is an indirect attempt to prevent Chinese firms from participating in projects in the state. The Union government in October had tightened the eligibility criteria for public procurements of contracts, stipulating that firms of countries, which share a land border with India, would have to provide details of outsourced parts, goods and sub-contracted works and services, technical issues, country of origin and specification of manufacturers.
Providing further details, urban development minister Madan Kaushik said, “Uttarakhand is a strategically-located state and a lot of factors have been to be kept in mind while floating global tenders. The past few months have seen heightened tension on the border areas. Therefore, it is a matter of concern and also national security and tender bids should be awarded after thorough check and examination.” Though he denied to name any country, he said, “We all know where the tension was in the past few months.”
In another important development, the cabinet approved the education department’s proposal to open higher education institutions in the state from December 15. All private and government colleges, degree colleges, institutes and universities would accordingly restart after a gap of over nine months.
The higher education department is expected to come up with a detailed advisory soon, mentioning the social distancing norms and set guidelines that would have to be followed by college and university authorities.
On the issue of Covid vaccine, authorities said that district and block-level committees had been formed and the required training was being provided to the health staff so that around 20 per cent population of the state can be administered the vaccine in the first phase. The cabinet also cleared the proposal to provide water connection at the rate of Rs100 per connection to the urban poor, which would comprise of people enrolled under the Below Poverty Line list or those from financially-weak backgrounds. Further, the cabinet approved 44 posts of super-speciality for Doon Medical College and 927 posts for Rudrapur Medical College.
Doctors going in for PG courses would have to either choose between a stipend or salary given by the state. Earlier, there was a provision that such doctors would give a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore. The state cabinet has now brought down the bank guarantee to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 1 crore.
