Patna, Sept. 3: The cabinet today enhanced the corpus of Bihar contingency fund from Rs 350 crore to Rs 1,800 crore to tackle the drought and flood situation in the state.

“The cabinet has enhanced the Bihar contingency fund corpus upto Rs 1,800 crore till March 2014 to carry out relief and rehabilitation work among the people affected from drought and floods in the state,” cabinet co-ordination department secretary Brajesh Mehrotra said. The funds could also be utilised for other purposes, he added.

The cabinet also decided to extend diesel subsidy grant for paddy and maize irrigation to protect crops in drought affected districts.

In view of the current flood situation prevailing in the state, it sanctioned a sum of Rs 40 crore from the contingency fund for distribution of cash as grant to the affected people, Mehrotra said. The cabinet also sanctioned Rs 646 crore towards school uniform for students of classes I to VIII in primary schools of the state.

“The cabinet approved the transfer of 24.95 acres at Digha diara (in Patna district) to the urban development department for construction of a water treatment plant,” he said adding that 60 decimals of land has been transferred to Bihar State (Power) Holding Company Ltd at Kurskanta in Araria to construct a power sub-station.

The cabinet also gave its nod to construct police stations, outposts, baracks, residential colonies for police personnel and others.

It also sanctioned Rs 46.28 crore to construct a two-lane RCC bridge over Bagmati river near Sonmankhi ghat in Khagaria.

It also approved the road construction department’s proposal to construct 58 small and big bridges in Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Kishanganj and East Champaran.