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THE STATE cabinet on Wednesday took a decision to refund the educational fee of 112 students, who were forced to take admission in private medical and dental colleges instead of government colleges due to the Maratha quota introduced last year.
According to officials, the decision is likely to benefit 106 graduate students and six postgraduate students. The cabinet gave an approval of Rs 7.49 crore to these students per year. The government will give a total of Rs 33 crore to students as refund, officials said.
Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde said the government will give Rs 10 lakh and a government job as compensation to the kin of deceased Maratha youths, who died during the Maratha quota protests.
“The previous government made the decision of giving Rs 10 lakh and a government job. Families of the deceased youths were demanding benefits. The request was made to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray during the cabinet meeting. The CM responded positively and issued instructions to the administration about it,” Shinde said.
Sources said the issue of withdrawal of cases registered against leaders for the “political” protest also came up for discussion in the state cabinet.
In another decision, the state cabinet approved a grant of Rs 1,500 crore as contingency fund for the implementation of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Farmer Loan Waiver scheme. At present, the state contingency fund has a limit of Rs 150 crore, which will be temporarily increased to Rs 1,500 crore. An ordinance will be issued for it, officials said.
The state cabinet also hiked the stipend amount of resident doctors from government medical and dental colleges by Rs 10,000 from the current month. The decision was made considering residents have been working 24×7 during the pandemic. The decision is likely to increase the additional financial burden of Rs 29.67 crore, officials said.