Shimla: The Himachal cabinet on Friday gave its nod to repeal the controversial sport act which infringed upon autonomy of sporting bodies, decided to merge state gazetteer with the language, art and culture department and approved handing over land on token lease for setting up the employee state insurance (ESI) corporation college and hospital.
Presided over by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the cabinet decided to promulgate an ordinance for repealing the Himachal Pradesh Sports (Registration, Recognition and Regulation of Associations) Act, 2005, so as to maintain autonomy of sporting associations and considering the reservations expressed by Indian Olympic Association about the law, a cabinet spokesman stated.
As an administrative reform and cost saving measure, the cabinet decided to merge the state gazetteer office with art language and culture department by transferring the technical staff t and adjusting non-technical staff in disaster management cell.
To set up the Rs 500 Crore ESI medical college and hospital the cabinet approved leasing of 139-6-5 bighas land along with built up infrastructure for 99 years in Ner Mohal, tehsil sadar of Mandi to Employees State Insurance Corporation. The land and building would be leased for a token amount of Re 1 so as to pave the way for opening of medical college and hospital, a cabinet spokesman stated.
The cabinet decided to rename the Rs 198 crore ‘Micro Irrigation and Other Infrastructure Development Diversified Agriculture Special Project’ as Pandit Deen Dayal Kisan-Baagwan Smridhi Yojna’.
The project would be completed in four years and aims at providing 80 percent subsidy to farmers on drip irrigation schemes and 50 percent subsidy on construction of farm tanks, boring of wells and purchase of pump sets for agricultural purposes.
The scheme target to bring about 20,000 hectares of land irrigation cover and save water for irrigation purposes to boost crop productivity, the cabinet spokesman said.
The cabinet also decided to grant one time relaxation in upper age limit of 45 years prescribed in Recruitment and Promotion Rules of the Ayurvedic Medical Officer in recent batchwise recruitment of Ayurvedic Medical Officers to maximum of five years.
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In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
