The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi aims for heritage city status

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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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New Delhi

Delhi aims for heritage city status

Staff Reporter

INTACH to provide expertise, consultancy and facilitate applying to UNESCO
Cabinet decides to provide concessions on purchase of battery-operated vehicles

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Cabinet has approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) for declaring Delhi a “World Heritage City”. It also cleared a proposal to grant huge concessions on purchase of battery-operated vehicles in the city.

Besides, the Cabinet also approved certain relaxations for implementation of Assured Career Progression (ACP) Scheme for teachers and granted full-time teacher status to part-time language teachers appointed by three language academies by sanctioning a 128 to 139 per cent increase in their remuneration.

After the meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said the MoU with INTACH had been contemplated as her government wanted to make the Capital a heritage city by undertaking conservation-oriented development works. She said INTACH would provide expertise and consultancy and facilitate applying to UNESCO for getting World Heritage City status to Delhi.

As for promoting battery-operated vehicles, Ms. Dikshit said this would help in improving the quality of air in Delhi. The Cabinet, she said, had decided to grant 29.5 per cent concession to those who buy two-three-four-wheel battery-operated vehicles. The concession would be in the form of VAT refund of 12.5 per cent through the Air Ambience Fund, 15 per cent subsidy on the base price of the vehicle and 2 per cent concession of Road Tax and registration expenses. Ms. Dikshit said the total collection from the Air Ambience Fund would be sufficient to cover the concessions.

The Chief Minister also announced that the Delhi Government had decided to grant full-time teacher status to all 231 part-time teachers deployed by the Punjabi, Urdu and Sanskrit Academy in the Government schools of the Directorate of Education. It has also decided to grant consolidated remuneration at par with the enhanced remuneration proposed for Kashmiri migrant teachers, thereby enhancing their remuneration by 128 to 139 per cent.

Full-time status

She said the part-time teachers were being offered full-time status keeping in view the large number of vacancies of language teachers in Government schools. The Government would, however, continue its efforts to fill vacant posts. The Government has granted concessions to a large number of teachers in implementing the ACP Scheme.

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