HP Government revives panchayat secretary cadre

Dharamshala, Jan 12 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet today decided to revive the panchayat secretary cadre and fill an additional 170 posts in fixed proportion to the number of panchayats in the backward, tribal and non tribal areas of the state to improve their functioning, official sources today said.

The State Cabinet, which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here, decided to transfer funds and other necessary employees to the panchayati raj institutions in a time bound manner after adopting the Backward Grant Fund (BRGF) methodology.

The sources said the existing District Level Planning Institutions of the Planning Department would be placed under the control of Zila Parishads for strengthening District Planning Committees, whereby Panchayat Level Plans would be consolidated by the District Planning Committees.

The Backward Region Grant Fund of Chamba and Sirmour would be utilized for augmenting resources for the District Planning Committees proposals for both the districts and the Panchayati Raj Department would function as Nodal Department by creating a separate head of BRGF fund, they said.

The District Planning and Twenty Point Programme Development Committees constituted by the Planning Department would be abolished and the administrative control of the existing District Planning Cells would continue to be with the Planning Department.

The sources said with a view to bring about the efficiency in the administration, the Cabinet also decided to amend the H.P.

Departmental Examination Rules, 1997 and raise the age limit for exemption to the government servants in the departmental examinations from existing 50 years to 55 years and revised the application format for the examination.

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