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Himachal cabinet okays extension of relief package across state
Briefing the media after the meeting, industries, labour and employment minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said that the special relief package, which was earlier limited to Mandi district, will now be implemented throughout Himachal Pradesh
The Himachal cabinet, in its meeting on Saturday, deliberated over the recent disasters in the state during monsoon season, and decided to extend the special relief package to disaster-affected people across the state.
Briefing the media after the meeting, industries, labour and employment minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said that the special relief package, which was earlier limited to Mandi district, will now be implemented throughout Himachal Pradesh.
Under the special relief package announced earlier by the state government, a compensation of ₹7 lakh is provided for completely damaged houses. “The cabinet has decided to increase the first instalment from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹4 lakh, enabling affected families to rebuild their houses without any hassle,” the minister said. Disasters have become a recurring feature of the monsoon season in Himachal Pradesh in recent years, causing extensive damage to life and property across the state. This year too, excessive rains wreaked havoc in the hill state, resulting in losses estimated at around ₹5,000 crore and claiming hundreds of lives. Thousands of houses were either partially or completely damaged.
The cabinet, in its meeting held under the chairmanship of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, also decided to begin the process of reorganising panchayats. The cabinet also decided to extend the terms of mayors and deputy mayors of municipal corporations from two-and-a-half years to five years. Harshwardhan 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 decision will benefit the mayor and deputy mayor of Shimla municipal corporation, whose two-and-a-half-year term is expiring in November 2025.
It was also approved to enhance the honorarium of 510 special police officers (SPOs), including 403 in tribal and 107 in non-tribal areas, by ₹300 per month.
It also accorded ex-post facto approval for enhancement of honorarium of ₹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 also gave the nod for the amendments in the scheme for setting up Ground Mounted Solar Power Projects with interest subsidy for bonafide Himachalis. This scheme will be now named as Rajiv Gandhi Swarojgar Saur Urja Yojna for setting up ground mounted solar power projects ranging from 100 KW to 2 MW in tribal and non-tribal areas with interest subsidy. For setting up of 100 KW to 2 MW solar power projects in tribal areas, 5% interest subsidy will be provided by the government, whereas provision has been made to provide 4% interest subsidy in non-tribal areas.
Meanwhile, leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that by extending the tenure of the Shimla mayor and deputy mayor from two and a half years to five years, the government is “running away” from the mayoral elections. “The government is avoiding the panchayat and mayoral elections because it knows that in the last three years it has pushed the state back by 30 years,” he said.
The state Cabinet also decided to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee under the chairmanship of 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 the construction activities in the rural areas. Rural development minister Anirudh Singh, urban development minister Vikramaditya Singh and town and country planning minister Rajesh Dharamani will be the members of this cabinet sub-committee.
The Cabinet also decided to allow the transport department to issue necessary permission for conversion of 1,000 existing diesel/petrol taxis into electric taxis with provision of 40% subsidy under Rajiv Gandhi Swarozgar Yojna. The approval was also given for the construction of Nahan Medical College at a newly selected land for the expansion of the college. It also gave nod to framing of new Resident Doctors Policy-2025.
The Cabinet approved to create 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 Cabinet gave its approval to allow 15 days’ paternity leave to contractual employees in the state.
With PTI inputs
