The Himachal Pradesh Government would explore the possibility of constituting a separate Housing Corporation to undertake the construction work of the government housing colonies at all level exclusively. This was revealed by Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, while reviewing the working of the HP Public Service Commission, here today.
Chief Minster said that his government was committed to the welfare of its employees who had been contributing significantly in implementation of the policies and programmes of the government. He said that his government had maintained best cordial relations with its employees and provided them financial and other service benefits due to them from time to time. He said the contribution of the state employees in making Himachal Pradesh a role model in different sectors had brought laurels to the state at national level. He said that all out effort was being made to safeguard the interests of the employees and deliver them best of the benefits compared to the employees in the adjoining states.
Virbhadra Singh said that whenever in power he had made it a point to develop sufficient number of new housing colonies to the state employees posted right from state headquarters down to the village level with a view to provide them suitable residential accommodation which the government considered necessary for the efficiency and result oriented performance by its employees. He said that his government would be considering constitution of a separate corporation, which could be assigned the development work of the government housing colonies in a big way. He said that there was no dearth of funding agencies, which could be approached for acquisition of funds for the construction of the housing colonies.
Chief Minister directed the authorities to requisition the services of an agency to undertake a detailed survey to assess the immediate requirement of the residential accommodation to the government employees of all categories at all level so that an exhaustive plan was formulated and required funds made available to undertake the development work. He said that efforts needed to be made to construct sufficient number of houses to make earmarked accommodation to the top government authorities at their headquarters.
Virbhadra Singh said that possibilities needed to be explored to relocate the Sadar Police Station of Shimla at more convenient place where it could deal with law and order problems more conveniently. He said that the present location of the police station had emerged insufficient to perform efficiently and needed better accommodation space for its increasing role in the maintenance of law and order besides better working environment to the police personnel. He said that the relocation would also help in carrying the modernization of the police stations.
Chief Minister said that the HP Public Service Commission was the constitutional body, which was looking after the recruitment procedure laid down for the officers in different departments on merit and capability after taking all aspects into consideration. He said that his government was committed to extend all assistance for the efficient and effective function of the Commission. He said that all out effort would be made to strengthen the Commission and assist it in delivering the best services to the state and people. He also advised the Commission authorities to evolve a system to make required provisions for the regularization of the contract employees falling within their purview of the Commission since the government was continuing with contract recruitments of officers in different departments of the state government with a view to safeguard their interests as also to honour the merit. He said that his government was committed to alleviate the status of the Commission befitting its constitutional position.
Lt. Gen (Rtd.) B.S.Thakur, Chairman of HP Public Service Commission, welcomed the Chief Minister and apprised him of the functioning and recruitment procedure being followed by the Commission.
S.S.Parmar, Chief Secretary, V.C. Pharka, Secretary Personnel and Shri Arvind Mehta, Secretary Finance were also present in the meeting.
