Shimla: Giving a breather to private technical institutions and universities, the Himachal Pradesh cabinet earlier today decided to relax admission criteria so as to enable them fill up vacant seats for the upcoming academic session.
Presided over by chief minister Virbhadra Singh, the cabinet relaxed the AICTE admission criteria under HP Private Technical & Vocation Educational Institutions (Regulation of admission & fixation of fee) Act, 2008.
It approved that 50 percent marks in qualifying examination be made mandatory for admission for the year with 5% further relaxation for reserved categories be allowed.
A cabinet spokesman clarified that it was a final relaxation. From next year the prescribed criteria of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) would be applied.
Only recently the HP High Court had rejected a plea by the private technical institutions that had sought to quash the states regulatory powers in the admission process.
The court had ruled that the state was within its purview in setting up a merit based admission criteria.
Other cabinet decisions included granting faculty members of Medical and Dental colleges’ time bound up-gradation of designations upon fulfillment of eligibility criteria.
Approval was also given for establishing collegium style of functioning in two medical colleges and a dental college of the state. The collegium way of functioning would entail that all major decision in a medical college department would not be taken by the head of department alone, but in consultation with two senior most faculty members.
Cabinet also decided to fill up one vacant post each of assistant professor and associate professor in department of Nephrology in IGMC Shimla through HP Public Service Commission by direct recruitment.
The cabinet approved engaging teachers through School Management Committees (SMC) on period basis in elementary and higher education departments. The SMC policy was also extended to schools where any sanctioned post was vacant since two years.
Approval to allot land on lease to DAV College Trust and Management Society New Delhi for construction of school building and play ground at Rehan in district Kangra was given.
It also decided to create and fill up 24 posts of different categories in Rajiv Gandhi Government Engineering College, Kangra at Nagrota-Bagwan.
It was decided to raise one additional company of Home Guard Volunteers at Sub-Division Chopal in Home Guard and Civil Defence Department.
The cabinet approved amendment in Rule 45, 50 and 50(4) of the H.P Value Added Tax Rules, 2005.
The cabinet also approved revision of pension for pre-2006 pensioners of UGC pay scales for HP Government College Cadre Employees.
Guidelines for inviting applications for allotment of small hydro power (up to 5 MW capacity) projects under identified and self identified basis were also approved.
The cabinet gave its nod for providing forest land on lease to M/s Om Energy Generation Private limited for construction of seven megawatt Holy–II Power Project in Chamba district at a fixed lease amount for forty years.
The cabinet also approved provide additional honorarium of Rs 1000 to as many as 518 Special Police Officers (SPOs)serving in remote areas of district Chamba and Lahaul & Spiti districts bordering to Jammu and Kashmir.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
