Himachal Pradesh govt announces major gift for Class IV employees

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 1 : The Himachal Pradesh government has taken yet another major decision in the interest of its employees.
Under the new provision, Class-IV employees who were regularised after May 15, 2003, will now be granted one year of regular service benefit for every five years of daily wage service for the purpose of pension calculation.
Accordingly, a maximum of two years of regular service benefit will be counted for employees having ten years or more of daily wage service.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced this decision while presiding over a high-level meeting. He said that this move would particularly benefit those Class-IV employees who were earlier deprived of pension benefits at the time of their retirement due to having less than ten years of regular service.
With this relaxation, one year of regular service will be counted for every five years of daily wage service. The maximum of 2 years qualifying service against 10 years of daily wage service will be considered for the grant of pension under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972.
The Chief Minister further stated that the Government would also provide these Class-IV employees an opportunity to opt for the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) once again. He recalled that immediately after assuming office, the present State Government reinstated the Old Pension Scheme in the State, ensuring social and financial security for its employees.
Sukhu reiterated that the state government remains fully committed to safeguarding the interests of its employees and continues to extend financial and welfare benefits to them from time to time.
Sukhu, while presiding over the review meeting of the Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited here on Saturday, directed to ensure better marketing and high-quality of its products, a CMO release said.
He said that a "milk processing centre would be established" in Karcham or Tapri in Kinnaur district to make its products "available to the army and local people".
He said that the "possibility of operating both milk processing plants located at Duttnagar, Shimla district, on an outsourced basis should be considered to ensure a further increase in production".Directions were given for preparing a proposal to set up a new milk powder plant in the already existing milk processing plant in Mandi district, the CMO said.
He said that the federation has recorded the "highest increase" in milk procurement during this financial year, and "29 new bulk milk coolers have been installed".
"In two years, 222 automatic milk collection units have been installed in the State. Multi-level efforts have been made to increase the number of milk-producing co-operative societies, with their number now standing at 716. The number of farmers selling milk to Milkfed has also increased significantly, now exceeding 40,000," CM Sukhu said, as per the CMO.
Federation President Buddhi Singh Thakur, Principal Secretary Finance Devesh Kumar, Secretary Health M Sudha Devi, Managing Director Vikas Sood, Senior Manager Preeti and other senior officials were present at the meeting.