The Cabinet in its meeting held at Dharamshala today, decided to amend the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning rules 2018 to allow sealing of unauthorized buildings or portions thereof so that the authorized building could be put to its approved and permitted use. Sealing would be done after giving the defaulters an opportunity of being heard under the amendment in the Act. This will give relief to the hoteliers and their objections will be invited under the rule.
The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Shri Jai Ram Thakur.
Approval was accorded by the Cabinet to grant interim relief to the regular government employees, pensioners, family pensioners at the rate of 8 percent basic pay to be payable from 1st January 2016 as was announced by the Chief Minister on 25 January at Ani, in Kullu district. This will benefit the employees and pensioners by rupees 700 crore.
The Cabinet in its meeting held here today decided to increase the maternity leave of women employees on contract basis from 135 days to 180 days, thus equating them with regular women employees in case of maternity leave.
It was also decided to impose ban on general transfers with immediate effect and till further orders.
The Cabinet decided to invite Expression of Interest (EOI) for procurement of design consultant for carrying out detailed feasibility study of 2000 kilometers of road length under proposed World Bank assistance for Himachal Pradesh State Road Project Phase-II. It was also decided for detailed engineering designs including socio-environmental and roads safety safeguards for 650 kilometers of road length in the State, besides periodic maintenance work of 1350 kilometers of road length of State road network.
Cabinet decided to allow recruitment process out of the purview of Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission and Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission on compassionate ground, against 3 percent sportspersons quota, from amongst the specially-abled persons, on batch-wise basis as per specific method provided in the respective recruitment rules and posts reserved for Ex-servicemen. In all other cases the departments concerned will examine all the aspects and put up to the Chief Minister for approval.
The Cabinet gave its approval for restoration of L-1 for wholesale distribution of IMFL, Beer, Wine and Cider and L-13 for wholesale distribution of Country Liquor to the Retail Venders w.e.f. 1-4-2018.
It also decided to start the process of grant of wholesale licenses L-1 and L-13 be started w.e.f. 5-2-2018 so that the formalities can be completed and the distribution network of liquor is put into place before 1-4-2018. It was also decided to merge the basic license fees into the proposed retail excise duty for 2018-19.
The decision was also taken that the Budget session of HP Vidhan Sabha would be held from 6th March to 5th April, 2018 with a break from 17th to 25th March.
The Cabinet withdrew the existing Himachal Pradesh scheme for revival of Sick Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) unit 2017 and decided to formulate the Himachal Pradesh scheme for revival of Sick MSME units 2018 after consultation with all Stakeholders.
It was also decided to fill 14 vacant posts of Assistant Professor/ equivalent in Dr. Y.S. Parmar, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni Solan on contract basis.
Decision was taken to fill up one post of Registrar Co-operative society in cooperation department.
The Cabinet approved opening of new IPH Division at Thunag in district Mandi and to create a IPH Division Dharampur at Bharari and IPH Sub-Division at Tihra and Mandap in district Mandi.
