Patna, May 10: The Bihar government today approved a proposal that talks of bringing 20 services in the ambit of Right to Service (RTS) Act. The state would enter the era of RTS from August 15 this year.

While giving approval to a proposal related to services, which would be covered by the act to begin with, the state cabinet also fixed the number of days within which the designated officials would have to deliver the services.

Some of the prominent services which would brought in the ambit of the act are those related to police verification of passport applications, fixation of holding tax in urban areas and issue of driving licence.

The proposal also named the officials who would be responsible for delivery of services within the stipulated time. Designations of appellate and reviewing officials as well the maximum time limit fixed for them too are mentioned in the proposal.

Today’s cabinet meet also approved a proposal dealing with the framing of rules for implementing the right to education in the state.

“As far as reserving 25 per cent seats in private schools for economically weaker section students is concerned, the guidelines for this would be formulated by the human resource development (HRD) department,” cabinet co-ordination department principal secretary told newsmen in the post cabinet press briefing.

Another major decision related to the HRD department was that of restructuring of posts. The posts of district superintendent of education and that of the district education officer would now be merged. The post of inspector of schools too would be abolished, whereas some posts would be created.

“While 299 old posts would be abolished, 489 new posts would be created in the HRD due to this restructuring,” Ravikant said.

Another major decision taken in the cabinet meet was related to the power sector and the cabinet gave approved a proposal which talks of taking Rs 608 crore loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB) for implementing projects under the Bihar power sector development programme. A sum of Rs 708 crore would be required for this programme of which ADB is providing 86 per cent as loan. The rest is to be contributed by Bihar State Electricity Board, which in turn, get this fund from the state government in the form of loan. The cabinet sanctioned Rs 10 crore as loan as the first instalment to the board in 2011-12 for doing the groundwork of the project.

One more proposal related to the power sector received the cabinet nod in today’s meeting. It pertained to the approval of investment proposal of Rs 6,810 crore which would be used for setting up a 1,320MW power plant by Bihar Power Infrastructure Company Limited at Kajra in Laheriasarai district and another investment proposal of Rs 6,795 crore by the same company for setting up 1,320MW power plant at Chausa in Buxar district.

The cabinet also approved a proposal for giving grant of Rs 536 crore for payment of salaries to 57,000-odd panchayat, block and urban teachers, who have been engaged on contractual basis.

Another major proposal dealt with the state government resolve of paying around 2 per cent of the total interest amount on housing loans taken by state government employees from nationalised banks.

A total of 17 proposals got the cabinet nod in today’s meeting, including the one dealing with rules for the Aryabhat Knowledge University.