Chandigarh

Himachal CM chairs State OBC Welfare Board meeting

PNS

Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday directed to construct all roads measuring up to one kilometre length under Mukhyamantri Gram Path Yojana with the funding from MGNREGA and Deputy Commissioners concerned.

He said this would help in early construction of such small roads besides assuring proper repair and maintenance under the monitoring of higher authorities.

Presiding over the meeting of Himachal Pradesh Other Backward Classes Welfare Board here, he directed the Education Department to come up with a proposal  on teachers being deployed by the School Management Committees (SMC) adding that till the policy was not reviewed the status quo be maintained regarding appointment of these teachers.

The Chief Minister said the income limit of the creamy layer had been enhanced from `4.50 lakh to `6 lakh per annum to benefit maximum illegible beneficiaries. In order to provide ample representation to the OBCs in the government jobs, they were being given 12 prcent reservation in class-I and class-II posts and 18 percent reservation for class III and class-IV posts.

The Chief Minister said the OBC Welfare Board was re-constituted in October, 2013 and as per the recommendation of this Commission, so far 51 castes had been included in the OBC list.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister (Col) Dhaniram Shandil said the State Government was implementing a number of welfare schemes for the OBCs with special emphasis  on improving  their economic conditions. He said that facility to avail loans upto `10 lakh on low interest rates was being provided to them to undertake vocational training and start self employment avenues. He said that maximum annual income limit had also been enhanced so that more beneficiaries could avail benefit of various welfare schemes of the department.

The issues relating to various developmental works in the rural areas namely PWD, Rural Development, Irrigation, Forest, Health and Revenue Departments were raised by the members during the meeting. The Chief Minister directed the concerned departments to complete all the ongoing works on different developmental schemes on priority basis.

Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Neeraj Bharti and Jagjeevan Pal, Chairman, H.P. OBC Welfare Board Chander Kumar, Ex MlA Surender Kaku, Chief Secretary P. Mitra, senior officers of the State Government, Heads of the Departments and official and non-official members of the Board attended the meeting.