The Cabinet meeting held here today decided to implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to benefit 1.36 lakh employees and those new, who will be appointed in the Government service in future will also be brought under the ambit of the OPS. Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, presided over the meeting. It was decided that these employees will also be brought under the ambit of GPF and those employees under New Pension Scheme (NPS), who have retired after 15 May, 2003, will be given OPS from the prospective date. It was decided that after necessary amendments in the rules, the contribution by the government and the employees under NPS will stop from 1st April, 2023. No deductions would be made from the employees from their salary under NPS from 1st April, 2023. If any employee wants to be governed under NPS, he can give his consent to the Government for the same. The Government will spend an additional amount of Rs. 1000 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24 on the implementation of OPS. The cabinet has also passed a resolution to be sent to the Union Government to return an amount of Rs. 8000 crore under the NPS, to the state. The Cabinet has asked the Finance Department to amend the rules and issue necessary instructions in this regard.
Part-2
The State Cabinet meeting held here today decided to engage 780 ASHA workers under National Health Mission (NHM) on an incentive basis to provide affordable and reliable healthcare to the people, as they function as health activists at the community level. It also gave its nod to the guidelines for the engagement of ASHA facilitators under Community Process Programme in NHM. The Cabinet decided to transfer an amount of Rs. 600 per student to all the girls, the Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) boys of 1st to 8th classes through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), either in the name of the student or mother, in lieu of providing them free School Uniform, which would benefit about 3.70 lakh students in the State. The Cabinet has given go-ahead to lease out the toll barriers under Himachal Pradesh Tolls Act, 1975 by way of auction-cum tender process for the year 2023-24.
Approval was accorded by the Cabinet to rationalize the engineering staff of the Forest Department and the services of 26 engineering staff would be absorbed into Public Works Department, Jal Shakti Vibhag, HP State Industrial Development Corporation, HP State Electricity Board and HP Power Corporation Ltd. The Cabinet gave its nod to merge excised civil areas from the limits of Yol Khas Cantonment Board with the adjoining Gram Panchayats Rakkar, Baghni, Tangorti Khas and Narwana Khas. The Cabinet also approved repealing of Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Adhiniyam, 2021 and Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Niyam,2022. It also decided to fill up one post of Assistant Professor of Community Medicine Department in Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College, Ner Chowk, Mandi to facilitate the patients of the area.
