Himachal cabinet replaces disbanded HPSSC with Rajya Chayan Aayog

According to an official statement, the Himachal Pradesh state cabinet on Thursday decided to establish the Rajya Chayan Aayog to conduct examinations for the recruitment of subordinate staff for the state government, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), boards, corporations and local bodies. The cabinet held a meeting here under Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s chairmanship and decided to replace the disbanded Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) at Hamirpur with the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog.
The HPSSC was dissolved this February, two months after a paper leak was unearthed on 23 December, when the vigilance bureau arrested Uma Azad, a senior assistant of the commission, with solved question papers and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash. Earlier this month, Sukhu announced the Rajya Chayan Aayog in place of the HPSSC to ensure fairness in the selection criteria. The Chief Minister had maintained that a transparent and merit-based selection process would be in place. He said 6,000 teachers would be recruited through the new commission and the state government would conduct the examinations for recruitment of more than 10,000 people this year. Senior Congress leader and Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana had earlier expressed serious concern over the delay in recruitment for government jobs. Through a letter, which was also posted on Facebook, he drew CM Sukhu’s attention to brewing discontent among unemployed youth.
The cabinet also approved the “Mukhyamantri Laghu Dukandar Kalyan Yojna- 2023” and decided to allocate Rs 40 crore under the scheme to provide better opportunities for availing loans to small entrepreneurs and skill-based workers including cobblers, tailors, barbers, mobile repair vendors, vegetable and fruit vendors and others for their business, the statement added. It also decided to introduce the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the state Assembly to address the issue of delayed decisions of Revenue Court cases and to streamline various revenue operations like partitions, corrections, mutations, appeals and demarcations to facilitate the public. The cabinet also gave its nod to amend the Swaran Jayanti Energy Policy, 2021, in order to manage the shortfall of energy during the lean period due to climatic, topographic and other reasons.