2,982 posts for teachers, ministerial staff lying vacant in Himachal schools: Minister
A total of 2,982 posts for teachers and ministerial staff are vacant in Government Senior Secondary, High, Middle and Primary schools in Himachal Pradesh, the Vidhan Sabha was informed on Friday.
The process to fill 700 posts of school lecturers and 985 posts of Lecturer (School New) in Computer Science is underway, with requisitions for filling these posts already submitted to recruiting agencies, Education Minister Rohit Thakur said in a written reply during the winter session of the state assembly.
A total of 1,095 posts of Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT) in Arts, Non-medical, and Medical streams have been filled, and notifications to fill 1,485 posts of TGTs in these streams, as per recruitment and promotion rules, have been issued, Thakur said in response to a question from BJP MLA Inder Dutt Lakhanpal.
He also mentioned that out of 1,023 posts of Assistant Librarians, 771 vacant posts have been converted to Junior Office Assistant (JOA) Library, and the remaining 252 posts of Assistant Librarians have been declared as a ‘dying cadre.’
In response to a question by BJP legislators Deep Raj and Satpal Singh Satti, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said free test facilities for 133 tests in IGMC and 42 tests in the associated Kamla Nehru Hospital in Shimla are available for patients.
With the inclusion of 56 free tests by the previous BJP government, the total number of free tests has increased to 175, Sukhu added.
Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri informed the state assembly that the Himachal Government has constituted a Water Commission to recover the water cess, but no revenue has been collected from central government undertakings, as the matter is pending in court.
Replying to a question from Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, the Deputy CM said that so far, ₹34.75 crore has been collected in water cess from private hydro-power developers. The government has paid ₹34.10 lakh to defend the case in the High Court and ₹31 lakh in the Supreme Court.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also informed the assembly that in the past year, a total of 12 cases related to the cryptocurrency scam and 2,779 cases under NDPS were registered by the police in Himachal.
A total of 5,805 accused individuals, including 78 in the cryptocurrency scam and 5,717 in NDPS cases, were arrested, he added in response to a question from Kewal Singh Pathania (Congress).
Additionally, immovable property worth ₹35.29 crore and movable property worth ₹1.70 crore have been seized in cryptocurrency cases in Mandi, Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Solan districts and Mohali in Punjab.
The winter session of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha commenced on Wednesday at the Tapovan campus in Dharamshala.
