In a first, Lucknow, Ghaziabad civic bodies to float bonds to fund infra projects

“The idea is to make municipal corporations self-sufficient,” said Cabinet minister and government spokesperson, Srikant Sharma, after the meeting.

Manoj Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, said, “This is for the first time in Uttar Pradesh that municipal bonds are being floated. The funds raised would be used for infrastructure. While there are two projects in Lucknow, that is of drinking water and sewage. In Ghaziabad, there is a project for sewage treatment plan, where proposal is to further sell the treated water for industrial use,”

He said these bonds would be floated for 10 years and said a presentation in this regard was made before the Bombay Stock Exchange. Singh added that apart from bringing in funds, it would also help corporations learn lessons in professionalism and “financial discipline”.

The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to transfer nearly 43 hectares of land with the agriculture department to the Industrial Development Department for construction of Defence corridor. Cabinet Minister Srikant Sharma informed that around 2,500 acres in Chitrakoot, Jhansi and Aligarh had been acquired for the project.

The defence corridor project was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during investors summit in Lucknow last year. The project would cover Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Chitrakoot districts.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved the proposal to directly initiate the action of cancellation of license if one is found guilty of adulteration in liqour. Earlier, Government used to impose fine of Rs 40,000 for first time offenders and Rs 50,000 for second time offenders and license was canceled on repeating the offence for the third time.

Cabinet also approved the proposal to to increase the penalty on sale of liquour above the MRP from existing Rs 10,000 to Rs 75000 for those found to be first time offenders and from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for second time offenders.

For those found to be selling liqour above the MRP for the third time in the state and were earlier required to pay Rs 30,000 fine, State Government has decided to cancel their license on repeat of the offense for the third time.