Making way for direct elections for the president in municipal councils and municipal committees, Haryana Cabinet on Tuesday approved amendment in Haryana Municipal Act, 1973.

The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, approved the amendment for the election of president in municipal councils and municipal committees directly by the eligible voters under the supervision and control of state Election Commission on the pattern of election of Mayors of municipal corporations.

The provision has also been made in the Act that members of the House of the People and Legislative Assembly of a state will not have right to vote for the election and no confidence motion of the vice president similar to the Corporation.

Similarly, provision has been made to ensure at least one session of Municipality of at least three days once in every six months in addition to the existing provisions of monthly meetings as mentioned in section 25 of the Municipal Act. The Cabinet also approved section 52 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, for the same purpose.

The Cabinet also approved the amendment in the proviso to section 4(4) of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act,1994 by way of an Ordinance for conducting the elections of newly constituted municipal corporations within five years from the date of their constitution.

The Cabinet has approved the amendment in the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) Rules, 2008 in order to bring more similarity and uniformity with the pattern being adopted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).  These Rules will be called the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) (Second Amendment) Rules, 2019. Now after the amendment, there will be four papers (three compulsory and one optional) in the main written examination for the post of HCS (Executive Branch) and Allied Services.

However, the list of 23 optional subjects and syllabus for compulsory and optional papers already notified by the State Government will remain unchanged. At present, the main written examination of HCS and Allied Services consist of 5 papers namely one paper for English, one for Hindi, one for General Studies and one paper each for two optional subjects to be chosen from the list of 23 optional subjects.

After this amendment, the main written examination comprising 4 papers will carry total 600 marks. While Paper I of  English (including English essay) and  Paper II Hindi (including Hindi Essay) (in Devnagri Script) will be of 100 marks each, Paper III of General Studies and Paper IV in one subject to be selected from the list of 23 optional subjects will carry 200 marks each respectively.

The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type and each paper will be of three hour’s duration. Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the language or literature papers, in English or Hindi.