Himachal Pradesh govt announces new pay scales for its employees

The Winter Session of Parliament will start Monday. It will conclude on December  23.  Tthe bill to repeal three farm laws will be introduced on the first day of the session. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will introduce Farm Laws Repeal Bill 2021 in Lok Sabha. Recently, The Bill will repeal the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and to amend the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. BJP has issued a whip for its members to remain present in House to support the government.

-Himachal Pradesh government has announced new pay scales for its employees with effect from 1 January, 2016. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while addressing the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of the Himachal Pradesh Non-Gazetted Employees Federation on Saturday said that all the pensioners and family pensioners would also be given revised pension and other pensionary benefits from 1 January, 2016. These new pay scales and revised pension would put additional burden of Rs. 6000 crore annually on the State exchequer. Jai Ram Thakur also announced implementation of New Pension System   (Invalid Pension and Family Pension )  from 15th May, 2003 according to Office Memorandum dated 5 May, 2009 of Central Government to the employees of the State Government. He said that this would put additional burden of about Rs. 250 crore on the State exchequer. State government also announced reduction in the period of contractual employees of the State Government for their regularization from three years to two years.

-State-level scheme sanctioning committee (SLSSC) approved drinking water supply schemes worth Rs 225.24 Crore for Uttarakhand. These schemes will provide tap water connections in 293 villages spread over 7 districts of the State. Of the 12 water supply schemes sanctioned, 11 are multi-village and one is a single village scheme. More than 19,000 households will be benefited through the schemes. State-level scheme sanctioning committee (SLSSC) approved these schemes on Friday. At present, out of 15.18 lakh rural households in the State, 7.41 lakh (48.79%) are getting tap water supply in their homes. The State plans to provide tap water connections to 2.64 lakh households by December 2022. This year, Jal Shakti Ministry has allocated Rs. 1,443.80 Crore to Uttarakhand, for ensuring clean tap water in every household and freeing women and girls from drudgery of fetching water from a distance. 

-Union Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said the National education policy 2020 made under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us a scope to internationalise our universities. He said, there is a need to put in place a special framework to realise the provisions of the policy that include multidisciplinary education, employment and research. On the occasion of attending the 79th foundation day function of Utkal University in Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha, on Saturday the Union Minister launched the website of the Centre for Innovation and Incubation of the University. The Union Education Minister said that there should be competitive spirit among the universities so that they can progress further. Emphasizing autonomy for the universities, the Minister said any sort of limitation imposed on them will prevent their intellectual potential from flowering forth. Contextually, he appealed to the Government of Odisha to revisit the Odisha Universities Amendment Act.

-In Telangana, 6 candidates of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have been unanimously elected to the Legislative Council from local authorities’ constituencies.  State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha is among the unanimously elected candidates. Elections for the remaining six seats of the Council will be held on 10th of next month. Local bodies’ representatives are eligible to cast their votes in these constituencies. Counting of votes will be taken up on December 14. Kavitha was elected from Nizamabad constituency. The others who were elected to the upper house of the state legislature are P Mahender Reddy and S. Raju from Rangareddy district, P Srinivas Reddy from Warangal, K Narayana Reddy, and K Damodar Reddy from Mahabubnagar district. Kavitha has been re-elected for a second term from Nizamabad.