DEHRADUN: Presenting a New Year gift in advance to 2,000 professors of universities and degree colleges, the Uttarakhand cabinet on Friday decided to hike the salaries of the instructors under the seventh pay commission recommendations. The revised salary will take effect from January 1, 2016. It would cost the state exchequer an additional Rs 130 crore.The cabinet also increased the registration charges of commercial and non-commercial vehicles in the state. For two-wheelers, 8 % fee would be charged on vehicles ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, and 9 % on motorbikes costing more than Rs 1 lakh.Similarly, 8 % fee would be levied on four-wheelers costing less than Rs 5 lakh; 9 % for vehicles ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 8 lakh, and 10 % on vehicles above Rs 10 lakh.Government spokesperson and state urban development minister Madan Kaushik said the proposed move will help the government to increase its revenues by Rs100 crore annually.“With the changes in the Uttarakhand Motor Vehicles Act 2003, we have streamlined the entire process which will immensely benefit the state,” said Kaushik.The cabinet also gave its nod to hire 10 ‘legal officers’ to look into legal matters of various state departments, Kaushik said.“The hiring would be done by a committee, which will be headed by the chief secretary and comprise of principal secretary (home) and other officers of the legal department. Seven years of experience is mandatory for the applicants,” Kaushik said.The minister added that the legal officers would be provided an office in the secretariat “so that they can be in touch with the offices of different departments”.The government also waived off liabilities in terms of dues worth Rs 1.43 lakh on former CM ND Tiwari, who passed away on October 18.Among the other key decisions taken during the cabinet meeting included direct benefit transfer on NCERT books for primary school children being increased from Rs 150 to Rs 250, while for Class VI and above, it was increased from Rs 250 to Rs 400. Forty-five posts were created for better coordination and preparations for Mahakumbh 2021 in Haridwar while allocation of 80.63 acre land was done in Kurpiya Farm of Kiccha village in Udham Singh Nagar for making various government offices, educational institutes and a police station.

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