Shimla: The Himachal cabinet, presided over by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, on Wednesday decided to extend the time period for vesting HP State Electricity Board into corporate entity by another six months.
It also approved recommendations of a forestry conference for being incorporated into state action plan for forestry, approved a draft of Himachal Pradesh Urban Rent Control (Amendment) Bill, 2009, and gave its nod for state wide collection of plastic waste by local bodies who would be rewarded for the cleanup exercise, said Abhay Shukla, additional chief secretary, at the cabinet briefing.
He said that in order to meet the December 15 deadline, HPSEB had been registered as a corporate body under the 1956 companies act.
“Since the government had taken control of the board six months ago, now after the registration of the utility, a six month transition period for corporatizing the board is permitted for which one does not need to seek the central government permission, he said.
Shrikant Baldi, the new principal secretary education who was present at the briefing said that the cabined decided to introduce an incentivised policy for improving education standards in government schools by holding teachers and institution heads accountable for poor results, at the same time, performers are to be rewarded.
Schools and teachers, of Class 8, 10 and 12, who did consistently get good results would be rewarded. The first hundred students would be given a free education tour, whereas those teacher and heads whose results were below 25 percent would first be warned and then an increment would be withheld, he said.
The cabinet also approve the draft bill for setting up Indus International University in Una and replacing the ordinance that had been notified for the purpose, said Baldi.
About the amendment to the rent control act, Shukla said that new bill proposed to balance the rights of the tenants vis a vis the owners as many were facing eviction on the grounds of reconstructing the older structures. The amendment intends that the tenant be entitled for re-entry to equivalent area after the building has been re-constructed or repaired, he said.
The forestry conferences recommendations about carbon sequestration for assessing available carbon stocks, separate forest policy for hills, paying local communities for environmental services provided and establishing long term monitoring plots in different eco-zones for assessing impact of climate change would be made part of the state forestry action plan, said Shukla.
The week long plastic waste removal campaign would be held between December 21 to 27 and the collected waste would be handed over to PWD or cement kilns for reuse, the additional chief secretary said. Local bodies would be involved and depending upon relative size and the clean up achieved would be suitably rewarded.
Revised food norms under national mid day meal programme in government educational institutions by enhancing the expenditure from Rs 1.93 per meal to R. 2.50 at primary stage and from Rs 2.75 per meal to Rs 3.75 at upper primary stage were also approved by the cabinet.
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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.
