New Delhi: The cabinet approved on Wednesday a slew of measures for farmers, railway employees and soldiers. It also said the government will establish three medical colleges modelled on the All Indian Medical Sciences.

For farmers it plans better irrigation, for railway employees a festival bonus, and a war memorial to celebrate the bravery of Indian soldiers who died in war, counter-insurgency operations or during UN peacekeeping duty.

Besides, the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved the protocol for avoidance of double taxation with Israel and Vietnam for prevention of tax evasion on income and capital. It will help in curbing black money, power minister Piyush Goyal said after the cabinet meeting in New Delhi.

In order to improve irrigation potential and efficient water use in a year that saw deficit rainfall, the CCEA gave its approval for a setting up a national watershed management project worth ₹ 2,142.3 crore. The government will ask for a World Bank loan for 50% of the corpus. Of the remaining, the federal government will provide ₹ 889 crore; nine state governments will finance the rest.

The scheme will be implemented at the national level as well as in the nine states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

These states have a poor record in providing irrigation to farm land, transport minister Nitin Gadkari said at a media briefing after the cabinet meeting. For example, just 5% of Jharkhand’s cultivable land is irrigated. It is 21% in Telengana, 24% in Andhra Pradesh, 32% in Madhya Pradesh and 34% in Gujarat, Gadkari said.

“The government had earlier approved a ₹ 50,000 crore irrigation project to be spent in five years (2015-16 to 2019-20) and together with Neeranchal (the new scheme), irrigation access is expected to improve across the country," said T. Haque, director of Council for Social Development, Delhi, and former head of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. “However, these may not be sufficient to irrigate each and every plot of land."

Over half of the country’s farm land lack access to assured irrigation and is dependent on the southwest monsoon that saw a 14% deficit in 2015, the second sub-par monsoon year in a row.

Neeranchal will be a part of the watershed component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana and will ensure irrigation access to every farm and promote efficient water use. Gadkari said the government aims to build small break dams on river beds to improve irrigation as well as better groundwater recharge leading to superior farm productivity.

As a festival bonanza, the government decided to give 78 days of salary as performance-linked bonus to railway employees “considering the good financial performance which is expected to motivate employees for working towards improving the same in future," Goyal said.

The move will benefit over 1.25 million non-gazetted employees and cost the government at least ₹ 1,030 crore. It had given 78 days of bonus in the preceding four years, too.

The cabinet also approved building a National War Memorial and a National War Museum at Princess Park near India Gate in New Delhi in memory of all Indian soldiers who died for their country. The plan was afoot since 1970s and a renewed push for it in 2012 did not receive approval. The estimated cost of the project will be around ₹ 500 crore over 14 acres of land in the next five years. After Independence, more than 22,500 soldiers have died in national interest.

The cabinet also approved setting up of three medical colleges in Nagpur, Manglagiri (Andhra Pradesh) and Kalyani (West Bengal) with a total cost of ₹ 4,949 crore.

The cabinet also cleared mechanisation of East Quay berths at Paradip Port on a build, operate and transfer basis in partnership with private firms for handling thermal coal exports. The estimated cost of the project is ₹ 1,437.76 crore. The plan will increase the port’s capacity to export coal from 7.85 million tonnes to 30 million.

The project is scheduled to be completed in three years. This mechanisation project will go a long way in improving the operational efficiency in Paradip port and reduce transaction cost for thermal power plants dependent on coal supply through the harbour, the cabinet said in a statement.

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