Cabinet nod for zonal system

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao left to New Delhi on Sunday to seek President's nod for the changes brought in by his government in the zonal system.

According to sources, KCR, after getting the Cabinet approval for the new zonal system earlier in the day, left for nation's capital. Though his appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet been confirmed, he nonetheless wants to be available in Delhi when it materializes. If the appointment is confirmed, it would be only on Monday since the Prime Mister would leave for abroad on Tuesday.

According to CMO sources, KCR will also call on President Ramnath Kovind and explain to him the new zonal system which requires his assent. If KCR meets the Prime Minister, he would most likely to bring to his notice the issues pending post division of the state which includes the division of the High Court. He would be staying for about four days in Delhi but his itinerary is not yet known. He is expected to return to Hyderabad in time for attending the Telangana Formation Day celebrations on June 2.

The Telangana Cabinet which met earlier under the chairmanship of KCR took a slew of decisions including approving the new Zonal system, increasing local quota reservation in jobs to 95 per cent, modifying school study rule for attaining local status, increasing retirement age limit of professors in teaching hospitals from 58 to 65 years.

The Cabinet approved the formation of two multi-zones and seven zones, namely Kaleshwaram, Basara, Rajanna Vemulawada, Bhadradri, Yadadri, Charminar and Jogulamba. The first four will be under multi-zone 1 and the next three would be multi-zone 2. By another decision, the Cabinet approved an important proposal of filling state cadre posts through promotions only. There will be only four categories of cadres - district, zonal, multi-zonal and state.

The Cabinet also decided to implement a uniform system for all cadre posts moving away from the past practice that had local quota at 80, 70 and 60 per cent for different category of posts. Another key decision taken was modifying existing rule for attaining local status. Henceforth, four years of continuous study between first standard to seventh standard is enough to attain the local status. The existing rule was four years of continuous study between fourth class and tenth class.

The Cabinet also gave its nod for the Farmers Insurance Scheme that would be rolled out from August 15 with CM making a related announcement on this scheme in his state formation day speech on June 2. The total budgetary provision would be Rs 1000 crore.

Farmers in the age group of 18 to 60 years would be covered under this Rs 5 lakh insurance policy. The LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) of India has been finalized as the firm that would be handling the government's insurance scheme. The premium amount is fixed at Rs 2271 and it would be borne by the government.

Insured farmer would propose the nominee to whom Rs 5 lakh of insured amount would be paid in case of death of the farmer. The death may be of any type including natural or accidental or otherwise. Also, the Cabinet approved staff provision including Managing Director to State Rythu Samanvaya Samithi by way of redeployment.

Another key decision taken by the Cabinet was enhancing retirement age limit of medical Professors in teaching hospitals from 58 to 65 years. Employees Association leaders G Deviprasad, V Srinivas Goud and K Ravinder Reddy were specially invited for the Cabinet meeting in view of discussions involving the new zonal system, number of cadre posts, local reservation quota.