Himachal cabinet gives nod to revise pay scale of 200,000 state govt employees
Following Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur’s promise to revise the pay of state government employees, the cabinet on Monday approved revised pay scales for close to 200,000 employees with effect from January 1, 2016.
"Today in the state cabinet meeting, we decided to provide revised pay scale to about two lakh employees from January 1, 2016 and increase the pay scale of contract employees,” Thakur tweeted.The new pay would be granted to the employees in the salary for the month of January 2022, which is payable in February 2022, news agency ANI reported citing state urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj.Due to this, an additional burden of four thousand crore rupees will be put on the state exchequer every year. The state government has already provided interim relief of about five thousand crore rupees to the employees in the form of arrears,” a statement from the chief minister’s office (CMO) said.
The Himachal Pradesh cabinet clearance to the new pay scales came ahead of the assembly elections in the hill state next year. On November 27, CM Thakur announced the revised pay during a meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of the Himachal Pradesh non-gazetted employees federation.
During the meeting, Thakur also said the regularisation period for contractual employees of the state would be reduced to two years from the existing three years.Among other measures taken meeting on Monday, the state cabinet said the Ayurvedic Health Centre at Bassi in the Naina Devi Ji Vidhan Sabha area and open health sub-centres at various Gram Panchayats would be upgraded.
It also gave its nod to the draft of Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar (Parivahan) Yojna to allow unemployed youth to ply 18 seater vehicles on these routes at concessional tax rates. The scheme is intended to provide mobility in rural areas and for providing employment to rural youth.
