HP Cabinet regularises 13,205 daily wagers

Shimla, Feb 5 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet today decided to regularise the services of 13,205 daily wagers in Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) and PWD who had completed 10 years of service.

The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here, decided to regularise 7,842 daily wagers in the PWD department and 5,363 in the IPH Department.

Briefing the mediapersons about the decisions, state's Chief Secretary Ravi Dhingra informed that this decision was likely to put an additional burden of Rs 165 crore on the state exchequer.

He said the 17 MW Chanju-II in Chamba district and 5.5 MW Bharari project in Shimla district would be executed as per the earlier decision taken by the Cabinet, adding that these projects would be executed on the basis of MoU signed during the tenure of the previous government.

The new BJP Government had decided to execute all power projects over five MW through competitive bidding, he said.

Mr Dhingra said in case of these two projects, the MoU had been signed during the previous government, but could not be implemented due to the election code of conduct came into force.

The issue of transfer policy was also discussed in the Cabinet, which decided to constitute an officers committee that would look into various aspects and place before the Cabinet its proposal for final approval, he said.

The CS said the committee would be headed by the Chief Secretary, while other members would include Secretaries Personnel, Finance and Special Secretary to the Chief Minister.

The committee after looking into various issues was likely to place its proposals before the Cabinet in its next meeting.

The Virbhadra Singh government had constituted a committee under its IPH Minister Kaul Singh Thakur to formulate the policy.

Now the officers committee would look into the various employees related issues, he added.

Mr Dhingra said in another decision, the Cabinet enhanced its premium share from five per cent t0 50 per cent under the crop insurance scheme under the relief package to the farmers.

According to an earlier arrangement, both the Centre and the state were to pay a premium of five per cent each, while the remaining 90 per cent was to be borne by the farmers, he said.

The Cabinet also decided to exempt HP Forest Services officers, including Assistant Conservator of Forests and Range Officers from the three per cent reservation for the disabled, he said, adding that this had been done due to the difficult nature of the job.

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