Himachal Pradesh: Rajya Chayan Aayog to replace disbanded staff selection commission

SHIMLA: The state cabinet on Thursday decided to establish the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog to conduct examinations for the recruitment of subordinate staff for the state government, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), boards, corporations and local bodies, an official statement said.

The cabinet held a meeting here under Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's chairmanship and decided to replace the disbanded Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) at Hamirpur with the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog, the statement said. The HPSSC was dissolved earlier in February this year, two months after the paper leak was unearthed on December 23, 2022, when the vigilance bureau arrested Uma Azad, a senior assistant of the commission, with solved question paper and Rs 2.5 lakh cash.

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Earlier on September 4, Sukhu had announced to set up the Rajya Chayan Aayog in place of the HPSSC within the next two months to ensure fairness in the candidates' selection criteria. The chief minister had maintained that a transparent and merit-based selection process would be in place. He had said that 6,000 teachers would be recruited through the new commission and the state government would conduct the examinations for recruitment of more than 10,000 people this year.

Senior Congress leader and Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana had earlier expressed serious concern over the delay in recruitments for government jobs. Through a letter, which was also posted on Facebook, he had drawn the chief minister's attention over brewing discontent among the youth waiting for jobs. The cabinet also approved the 'Mukhyamantri Laghu Dukandar Kalyan Yojna- 2023' and decided to allocate Rs 40 crore under the scheme to provide better opportunities for availing loans to small entrepreneurs and skill based workers like cobblers, tailors, barbers, mobile repairing vendors, vegetable and fruit vendors and others for their business, the statement added.

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It also decided to bring the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the state assembly to address the issue of delayed decisions of Revenue Court cases and to streamline various revenue operations like partitions, corrections, mutations, appeals and demarcations to facilitate the public. The cabinet gave its nod to amend the Swaran Jayanti Energy Policy, 2021, in order to manage the shortfall of energy during the lean period due to climatic, topographic and other reasons.

The new provisions will encourage installation of rooftop based solar projects and contribute to power generation. It decided to increase the honorarium for School Management Committee (SMC) teachers and part time water carriers working in the education department from April 1, 2023, benefitting about 2,400 individuals. The cabinet decided to fill up 1,226 posts of constables in the police department which include 877 male constables, 292 female constables and 57 constable drivers to strengthen the department. It also decided to fill 74 posts of mining officers at various levels to check the illegal mining activities.