Slain forest guard's grandmother to get his full salary: Govt

The Himachal Pradesh government today said it would give the full salary of slain forest guard Hoshiyar Singh to his grandmother Hirdi Devi, during her lifetime, as a special case.
The decision was taken keeping in view the "exceptional circumstances" of the forest guard's death when he was posted in the Katanda forest beat in Mandi district, an official statement issued here said.
The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Hoshiyar Singh (22), who went missing on June 5, was found hanging from a tree in a forest in Mandi district on June 9.

His family members had alleged that he was "killed" by the forest mafia.
The cabinet further decided to implement the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of apple crop in 2017 on the analogy of previous years to provide remunerative price to the fruit growers in the state.

It is estimated that 10 per cent of the total production - 55,849 metric tonnes - will be procured under the MIS through the procurement agencies of the government.
The procurement price was increased from Rs 6.50 to Rs 6.75 per kg.
The cabinet also approved the grant of Rs 120 crore to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation for clearing pension liabilities besides giving nod to filling up of posts of environment science lecturers in government colleges where student enrollment is 1,000 or more.

It further approved introducing education as a subject at the under-graduation level in 13 government colleges in the state along with creation and filling up of 13 posts of assistant professors in the said subject on contract basis.
The government also decided to fill about 3,000 posts in various departments, including 2,000 posts of para medical staff in the Health and Family Welfare Department on contract basis and 17 vacant posts of assistant professors in the Indira Gandhi Medical College in Shimla and Tanda Medical colleges through direct recruitment.
The cabinet also decided to frame common rules for promotion and recruitment for the post of private secretaries in the offices of divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, settlement divisions and director land records and the Revenue Department.

The cabinet gave its approval to repair the village roads under Mukhya Mantri Rural Road Repair Scheme, for which a provision of Rs 20 crore has been made in the Budget under the MNREGA component.
It decided to revive the Human Rights Commission and fill the post of chairperson and member along with the staff.
A decision was taken to create Quality Control Wing in the Irrigation and Public Health Department at the headquarter level for overall reporting, monitoring and investigation office for proposed two-tier quality management system at the field level.