The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Monday decided to provide revised pay scales to about 2 lakh employees of the state government from 1 January, 2016 and they will get salary of January 2022 payable in February, 2022 in revised pay scale.

The decision was taken in the Cabinet meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in Shimla.

A state government official said the decision will put an additional burden of about Rs 4000 crore annually on the state exchequer.

The state government had already provided interim relief of about Rs 5000 crore to the employees as part of the arrears.

After the revised pay scales due to higher fixation about 1,05,000 NPS employees, Rs 260 crore would be spent as government contribution as 6 years arrears under NPS.

The Cabinet has also decided to increase the salary of contract employees.

“It gave its nod to promulgate HP Swarn Jayanti (Legacy Cases Resolution) scheme, 2021 for settlement of arrears of tax, fee, interest, penalty etc which are pending for recovery or are pending in the appellate forums or may accrue in future as a result of disposal of pending tax assessment under the various enactments.

This would also address the tax dues which are trapped in the cases that have not been assessed so far as well as those cases where arrears have been declared under the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1954 and this would help in redressal of over 1.68 lakh cases, he added.

The official stated that the Cabinet also gave its nod to issue Letter of Intent in favour of M/s Mayur Industries Village Neri in Sundernagar tehsil of Mandi district for setting up of fruit based wine and cider factory.

The Cabinet gave its consent to the draft of ‘Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar (Parivahan) Yojna to allow unemployed youth to ply 18 seater vehicles on these routes at concessional tax rates.

This scheme would provide mobility to rural areas and will also provide employment to rural youth.

The Cabinet gave its consent to create six new patwar circles in Manali tehsil of Kullu district by reorganizing the existing patwar circles.

It gave its nod to transfer 0-76-79 hectares of land at Mohal and Mauza Palauhra in Jawali tehsil of Kangra district in favour of Union Ministry of Defence for construction of ECHS Polyclinic at free of cost by charging Rs 1 as token value of land.

It also provided its in principle approval for establishing Drone Flying Training School at Government ITI Shahpur in Kangra district and authorized the Department of Technical Education to finalize the terms of engagement with Indira Gandhi Rashtrtiya Uran Akademi for signing the MoU.

The Cabinet alsi gave its consent to rename Government Senior Secondary School, Halahn in Shillai assembly segment of Sirmaur district as Shaheed Kalyan Singh Government Senior Secondary School as a mark of respect to martyr Kalyan Singh, he added.