An unscheduled union cabinet meeting on Tuesday showered Diwali gifts on journalists in the form of new wages in newspapers recommended by the Justice G R Majithia Wage Boards while gifting higher minimum support prices (MSPs) to farmers and a liberal rehabilitation package to the dam oustees in four states of Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

It, however, tinkered with the wage board recommendations in what was described as certain corrections and rectifications while accepting the award submitted on December 31 by the wage board that was set up back in May 2007. The government was holding its hand because of certain newspapers challenging the award in the supreme court, though without succeeding to secure any stay.

Since the Cabinet convened just a day before Diwali, all five Tamilian ministers, including home minister P Chidambaram, were absent as they had already left for Chennai for celebrations of the festival. Other Tamilian absentees were M K Alagiri, G K Vasan, Jayanthi Natarajan and V Narayanaswami. Jayanthi is MOS with independent charge of environment and forests. A subject matter of her ministry had to be put off as she was not present.

The new wages, which benefit both journalists and non-journalist employees in newspapers across the country, will come into force with retrospective effect from July 1, 2010 and other allowances like transport allowance, house rent allowance, hardship allowance with effect from the date of notification of the awards in the Gazette.

There are nearly two lakh employees in the newspaper industry, but only 40, 000 to 50, 000 will be benefited by the new pay-scales and allowances as majority of the journalists and other employees are now on contracts that deny them the wage board award.

MSP for Rabi crops: The new MSPs approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) at which the government will buy the foodgrains in the Rabi season of 2011-12 include wheat at Rs 1285 per quintal, marking an increase of Rs 165 per quintal over the last year's MSP.

Barley's MSP is raised by Rs 200 to fix it at Rs980 per quintal, while the MSP of gram and masur (Lentil) has been fixed at Rs.2800 per quintal each, marking an increase of Rs 700 per quintal and Rs 550 per quintal respectively over their last year’s MSPs.

The MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and safflower have been increased by Rs.650 per quintal and Rs.700 per quintal respectively over the last year’s MSPs and have been fixed at Rs.2500 per quintal each.

Dam Oustees: The cabinet committee also cleared a proposal for Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) with the World Bank assistance, costing a whopping Rs 21,000 crores. The World Bank will funds Rs 1680 crores under the scheme.

Officials said the scheme would help in rehabilitation of the people displaced from their homes and source of living by construction of 223 dams in M.P., Orissa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, along with the dam safety institutional strengthening in these four states.

The project will improve the safety and operational performance of selected existing dams with reduced risk of failure. The primary beneficiaries are both urban and rural communities dependent on the concerned reservoirs for their water supply and livelihood as well as all downstream communities, who could be placed at physical and/or operational risk if the dam safety is compromised, the officials said.