Shimla, Oct 25 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday decided to extend the terms of mayors and deputy mayors of municipal corporations from two-and-a-half years to five years.
The decision will
benefit the mayor and deputy mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, whose two-and-a-half-year term is expiring in November 2025.
Briefing mediapersons here, Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said a two-and-a-half-year term was raising apprehensions of horse-trading and pointed out that the term in Panchayati Raj institutions is five years.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also gave a nod to enhance the honorarium of 510 special police officers (SPOs), including 403 in tribal and 107 in non-tribal areas, by Rs 300 per month.
It also accorded ex-post facto approval for enhancement of honorarium of Rs 500 per month of School Management Committee (SMC) teachers, including Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT), classical and vernacular teachers, Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers, lecturers and diploma and primary education (DPEs), mid-day meal workers and part-time water carriers.
Both the decisions would be implemented with effect from April 1, 2025, a statement issued here said.
The Cabinet decided to allow the Transport Department to grant permission for the conversion of 1,000 petrol and diesel taxis into electric vehicles with a provision of 40 per cent subsidy under the Rajiv Gandhi Swarojgar Yojna.
It approved the proposal to streamline the implementation and efficient monitoring mechanism of Prakritic Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojna and Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Project (JICA-Phase-II). This mechanism will go a long way in fostering coherence between the departments concerned, besides ensuring efficient governance and execution under the flagship programmes of the projects.
Further, the Cabinet decided to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi, to finalise the draft of Rural Area Development guidelines to be adopted by gram panchayats in the form of model by-laws to regulate construction activities in the rural areas.
Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh, Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh and Town and Country Planning Minister Rajesh Dharmani will be the members of this Cabinet sub-committee.
It gave its approval to include 19 games in the list of games which qualify meritorious sportspersons for consideration for appointment to posts under the state government departments, boards and corporations.
These games include baseball, para sports, rugby triathlon, deaf sports, mallakhamb, kudo, motor sports, pencak silat, shooting ball, soft tennis, roll ball, tenpin bowling, tug-of-war, fencing netball, sepak takraw, wushu and kickboxing.
The Cabinet approved creation of a separate and specific state cadre for junior office assistant (IT) under the Directorate of Recruitment by creating 300 posts as Job Trainee in the first phase.
The approval was also given for the construction of Nahan Medical College at a newly selected land for the expansion of the college. The Cabinet also agreed to grant ex-post facto permission for new post graduation and super specialty courses to regulate admissions in these courses in the Department of Medical Education and Research.
It also gave nod to framing of new Resident Doctors Policy-2025. The Cabinet accorded, in principle, approval to the proposal of the Health Department for framing policy to regulate appointment of assistant staff nurse.
It also approved the amendments in the scheme for setting up ground-mounted solar power projects with interest subsidy for five and four per cent to bonafide Himachalis ranging from 100 KW to 2 MW in tribal and non-tribal areas, respectively.
The Cabinet also gave its approval to establish a Tourism Investment Promotion Council (TIPC), which would work on a mechanism to attract, evaluate and facilitate tourism investments efficiently and transparently.
The Cabinet gave its approval to allow 15 days’ paternity leave to contractual employees in the state. PTI BPL MNK MNK
