Bill seeking to give woman share in husband's property approved

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday approved a Bill seeking to give a woman a share in her husband's property . Apart from giving women the right to their husband's property, the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010, also aims at giving rights to adopted children on par with biological off-springs.

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha two years ago and then referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and Personnel.

The government has also accepted the recommendation of the parliamentary committee that women should have a share in the property of her husband in case of a divorce but the quantum of share will be decided by the courts on case-by-case basis.

In another decision, the central government today announced a seven percentage point increase in dearness allowance (DA) to its employees. The decision, was taken by the Union Cabinet this evening in New Delhi .The new DA rate of 65 per cent of basic pay against 58 per cent earlier will be applicable retrospectively from January 1, 2012 .It will benefit about 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners.

In yet another decision, the Union Cabinet approved the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster, for payment of ex-gratia to additional 9000 cases of Cancer and total Renal Failure amongst the Bhopal Gas Victims. An Amount of 134 crore Rupees has been approved for this purpose.

The Government also approved transfer of land at inner Ring Road, Kathipara Junction, Chennai to Chennai Metro Rail Ltd for the Chennai Metro Rail Project for an amount of 11.34 crore Rupees. The works for the Phase-I are expected to be completed within schedule timeframe i.e. by 2014-15.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the establishment of the Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust (CRGFT) for Low Income Housing. The CRGFT will have an initial corpus of 1200 crore Rupees of which 1000 crore Rupees is being contributed from the Centre and the remaining 200 core will come from the State Governments who draw on it, in accordance with their slum populations.

The CCEA has also approved modifications of the existing scheme for Reorganization and Restructuring of Teacher Education to fulfill the statutory obligations of the Government with regard to teacher preparation and teacher training under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Modification of the scheme is also critical in the context of the need for training requirements of teachers at the secondary level under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan. 

The CCEA also approved the proposal of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries for further upscaling the scheme of cold chain, value addition and preservation infrastructure for food processing with an investment outlay of 231 crore Rupees to assist additional 30 cold chain projects in the country.

In another decision the CCEA today approved a proposal of Ministry of Urban Development for re-development of Kidwai Nagar (East) in Delhi for construction of residential accommodation for Government employees.

The Cabinet Committee on infrastructure today approved the implementation of development through four laning and operation of Zirakpur - Patiala section (50.7 km) of NH 64 in Punjab through public private partnership on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis.