Mumbai, June 24 (IANS) Maharashtra Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday, approved increase in food, subsistence and educational material purchase allowances for tribal students living in government hostels across the state.

“To make it easier for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students to pursue higher education outside their villages, government hostels are functioning across the state at divisional, district, taluka and rural levels. It was decided to revise the rates of these allowances considering the inflation index. This was done as the tribal students living in the hostels were facing difficulties as they did not get any increase in the last few years. Therefore, now they will get more financial assistance as per the revised rates,” the state government said in a statement.

The monthly subsistence allowance has been hiked to Rs 1,400 from Rs 800 at the divisional level, Rs 1,300 from Rs 600 at the district level and Rs 1,000 from Rs 500 for rural and taluka level.

Additional subsistence allowance for girls has also been increased from Rs 100 to Rs 150.

The annual Educational Material Purchase Allowance has been increased to Rs 4,500 from Rs 3,200 for classes 8 to 10, Rs 5,000 against Rs 4,000 for classes 11, 12 and diploma courses, Rs 5,700 against Rs 4,500 for degree courses and Rs 8,000 against Rs 6,000 for medical and engineering courses.

The monthly food allowance has been increased to Rs 5,000 from Rs 3,500 for hostels in municipal and divisional cities, and Rs 4,500 from Rs 3,000 for hostels at the district level.

There are 490 hostels in the state, of which 284 are for boys and 206 for girls, with a total intake capacity of 58,700 students.

The government hopes that the rise in these allowances will help in making the educational journey of Scheduled Tribe students easier, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the state Cabinet approved a provision of 862.29 crore 29 lakh rupees for the Koyna Dam Base Power Plant (Left Bank) Hydroelectric Project.

The original plan of Koyna dam was to provide 30 TMC of water for irrigation in the eastern part and an additional 20 TMC for various lift irrigation schemes under Maharashtra Krishna Valley Corporation, and to generate additional electricity from it during the peak demand period.

However, in 2023, the state government has decided a policy for the development of pumped storage hydropower project, solar and other non-conventional hybrid projects through public-private partnership.

Accordingly, now a memorandum of understanding has been signed to jointly develop this project with Maharashtra Krishna Valley Corporation and Mahanirmiti company.

Out of the Rs 1,336.88 crore required for the development of this hydropower project, the first revised administrative approval was given to the provision of Rs 862.29 crore.

The remaining expenditure will be spent on irrigation schemes.

This project will release 20 TMC of water for Tembhu, Krishna Koyna Lift Irrigation Scheme (Takari-Mhaisal) and generate electricity.

A total of 277.82 million units of electricity will be generated through the project.

–IANS

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