Ranchi, May 3: The state cabinet today announced that government employees will be allowed to accumulate earned leave (EL) up to 300 days ? the maximum limit of accumulation for the Union government employees.

The decision to increase the earned leave limit of state government employees by 60 days was taken in a cabinet meeting, chaired by chief minister Arjun Munda, today. The employees will also be given the benefit of encashing unutilised EL at the time of retirement, cabinet secretary Aditya Swarup said.

In other decisions, the cabinet also lowered the stamp and registration fees on land lease from 10.4 per cent to 5 per cent and recommended the inclusion of Dandchatramanjhi caste in the Schedule Caste category. The cabinet, that had lowered stamp duty and registration fees on sale and purchase of land in last June, has decided to extend lower rates on registration of land lease as well. The rate of stamp duty has been slashed from 8.4 per cent to 4 per cent while registration fee has been halved from the existing 2 per cent.

The cabinet has decided to recommend to the Union government to include Dandchatramanjhi in the SC category. In another decision, the cabinet has approved the proposal of science and technology department to grant Rs 25.46 crore to four technical institutions in five years under the World Bank funded Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme.

The cabinet also approved release of Rs 7.2 crore in the current financial year of which Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for BIT, Mesra. Of the remaining Rs 2.2 crore, Rs two crore will be given to BIT, Sindri and Rs 10 lakh each to Ranchi and Dumka polytechnics. The scheme was sanctioned by the cabinet in the last financial year but the amount could not be released following which it lapsed. Under the scheme, the state government would return 70 per cent of the loan while the rest will be returned by the Centre, Swarup said.

The cabinet also re-endorsed relief and rehabilitation department?s decision to declare all 22 districts as drought-affected in 2004-2005. Earlier, the declaration was made due to poor rainfall and poor sowing. The figure of crop damage has come now and it is in consonance with the declaration, Swarup said.

The cabinet also approved the finance department?s proposal to increase consolidated salary of contractual computer operators and data entry operators of state secretariats from Rs 4,000 per month to Rs 5, 500.