Modi Cabinet 2.0 has first meeting

New Delhi: The new Cabinet of the Narendra Modi government on Friday held its first meeting in which decisions were taken with regard to the welfare of farmers, small traders and children of defence and security personnel.

Terming the decisions to be “landmark”, Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said: “In less than 24 hours after taking oath, the government has started functioning and taking important decisions. It has started implementing promises made in the BJP’s manifesto.”

During the meeting chaired by Mr Modi, the very first decision was with regard to enhancing the rates of scholarship in the ‘Prime Minister’s Sch-olarship Scheme’ under the National Defence Fund and extend the facility to the children of state police personnel also.

In another important decision, the Cabinet appr-oved the extension of the Prime Minister Kisan

Yojana to all farmers. Announcing the decision, Union minister of agriculture and farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said nearly 14.5 crore farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme.

Besides, the Cabinet approved a new Central Sector Scheme, the Prad-han Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana, which will provide income support to small and marginal landholder farmer families with cultivable land holdings of up to 2 hectares, across the country, by way of `6,000 per year. The ongoing scheme aims to cover around 12.5 crore small and marginal farmer families. This is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for small and marginal farmers in which the Central government and farmers have to contribute on the basis of 50:50.

Mr Javadekar said the “path-breaking” scheme would provide a pension cover to a large section of farmers in which the Centre would spend `10,774.5 crore for a period of three years. He added that the Cabinet has also cleared a special scheme for Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis, common amongst livestock.

In another major step, the Cabinet cleared pension scheme for traders in which three crore retail traders and shopkeepers are expected to benefit.

With regard to scholarships for the wards of defence and security personnel, the Cabinet  appr-oved an increase in the rates of scholarship from `2,000 to `2,500 per month for boys and from `2,250 to `3,000 per month for girls.  In addition to this, the ambit of the Scholarship Scheme was extended to the children of state police officials who are or were martyred during terror or Naxal attacks. The quota of new scholarships for wards of state police officials will be 500 in a year. The ministry of home affairs will be the nodal ministry in this regard.

“In line with the Prime Minister’s vision for India’s safety, security and the well-being of those who protect the nation, the very first decision of the   Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on assuming his office is approval to a major change in the ‘Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme’ under the National Defence Fund,” the Press Information Bureau said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Mr Javadekar announced during a media briefing that the Parliament session will begin from June 17 and the new government would present its Budget on July 5 while Economic Survey would be released on July 4. He said the election for Speaker would take place on June 19 while President Ramnath Kovind will address the joint session on June 20.