The Himachal cabinet on Thursday decided to establish the Himachal Pradesh 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, a government statement said.

The HPSSC was dissolved earlier in February this year, two months after the paper leak was unearthed on December 23, 2022, when the vigilance bureau arrested Uma Azad, a senior assistant of the commission, with solved question paper and Rs 2.5 lakh cash.

Earlier on September 4, Sukhu had announced to set up the Rajya Chayan Aayog in place of the HPSSC within the next two months to ensure fairness in the candidates' selection criteria. The chief minister had maintained that a transparent and merit-based selection process would be in place.  He had said that 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.

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 like cobblers, tailors, barbers, mobile repairing vendors, vegetable and fruit vendors and others for their business.