Cabinet approves new municipal Bill

The state Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of CM Nayab Singh Saini here today, initiated a major reform in urban governance by approving the Haryana Municipal Bill, 2025, aimed at replacing the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, and Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994.

The unified Act has been drafted to bring all categories of municipalities—corporations, councils and committees—under a single legal framework. At present, 87 municipalities in the state function under two Acts, causing administrative complexities, inconsistent service delivery and challenges in interpretation of rules.

It aims to streamline governance, remove ambiguities, modernise municipal administration and strengthen financial autonomy of urban local bodies. The Act also introduces provisions for urban transport planning, urban forestry, and the prohibition of illegal colonies similar to the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. For municipal staff, the Act proposes common service rules to reduce litigation arising from transfers and promotions under separate legal frameworks.

Cadre change policy for teachers

The Cabinet approved a modernised cadre change policy for district cadre teachers, ensuring transparent inter-district movement and strengthening academic stability in schools.

The policy shall replace the 2018 framework and introduce an objective, merit-based and technology-enabled system for voluntary cadre change for primary teachers (PRT/JBT), head teachers (HT), and classical & vernacular (C&V) teachers working on a regular basis. The teachers, who will adopt this policy, will be given new station before April 1, 2026.

New rules for tourist vehicles

The Cabinet framed the new Haryana Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2025. Vehicles operating with all India tourist permits in the NCR will be allowed to operate for 12 years if they run on petrol or CNG, whereas diesel vehicles will be permitted for a maximum of 10 years. For non-NCR areas, vehicles running on petrol, CNG and diesel will also have a maximum operational age of 12 years.

For all other permits, including stage carriage, contract carriage, goods carriage and school buses in the NCR, maximum permissible operational age has been fixed at 15 years for vehicles operating on petrol, CNG, electric or other clean fuels. However, for diesel vehicles operating under these permit types, it has been fixed at 10 years in the NCR. For non-NCR areas, the maximum operational age will be 15 years.

Aggregator policy amended

The Cabinet approved the aggregator policy amending the rules framed in 2016 for granting licences to operators or IT-based passenger aggregators acting as agents or promoters to attract customers for travel through public service vehicles.

Under the new rules, motor vehicle aggregators will not be permitted to include any vehicle running solely on diesel or petrol in their fleet, with effect from January 1.

HCS (Mains) to have 6 papers

Approval was accorded to amend the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) Rules, 2008, replacing them with the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) Amendment Rules, 2025. Now, the number of papers in the HCS main examination has been increased from four to six, carrying a total of 600 marks.

New Service Rules

The Cabinet has approved the draft Service Rules for Group A, B, and C posts for the newly created Directorate of State Audit Haryana.

Relief for agro mall allottees

The Cabinet accorded approval to a proposal regarding appeal for relief to the allottees of Agro Mall, Rohtak. The allottees, who do not want to retain the allotted site, will be offered refund of the deposited amount along with an interest @7 per cent per annum from the date of deposit till the payment. Those who wish to retain the shops will be allowed to deposit the outstanding amount as per the earlier scheme of the board.