The Himachal Cabinet in its meeting held on Monday decided to provide an amount equivalent to salary of Forest Guard Hoshiar Singh to his grandmother, Hirdi Devi, as a special case throughout her lifetime. A spokesperson said that this has been done in view of the exceptional circumstances of his death while posted in Katanda forest beat. The forest guard was found hanging under mysterious circumstances. The Cabinet was presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
The Cabinet decided to implement the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of apple during the year 2017 on the analogy of previous years to provide remunerative price to the fruit growers. It is estimated that 10 percent of the total production, i.e. 55,849 MT will be procured under MIS through procurement agencies of Government — HIMFED and HPMC at their own level. The procurement price is fixed at Rs 6.75 per kg instead of last year rate of Rs 6.50. A decision was taken to give Rs 120 crore grant-in-aid to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation for employee pension fund from the Government of Himachal Pradesh for regular payment of pension liabilities to these employees.