Employees with less than 10-yr service not entitled to pension: Himachal minister Harshwardhan Chauhan

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Shimla, February 27

Government employees, who have not completed 10 years of regular service, are not entitled to availing pension. This was stated by Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan while replying to a query by Ani MLA Lokendra Kumar.

“Pension cannot be given to a retired employee who has not completed a minimum service period of 10 years,” said Chauhan. He said that jobs done on contract basis is not counted for pensionary benefits under the CCS Pension Rules 1972.

“In such a situation, to receive pension, it is mandatory to have rendered a minimum tenure of 10 years on regular service,” he said. He said 3,899 state government employees had been found to be eligible for availing the old pension scheme by the Accountant General’s Office.

In response to a question by MLAs Kewal Singh Pathania and Vipin Singh Parmar, Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil said that at present 677 pharma units were functioning in the state. “Till January 15, a total of 374 samples of medicines, manufactured in various pharma companies in Baddi-Barotiwala- Nalagarh, had failed,” he said.

Shandil said action was being taken as per rules against the companies whose medicine samples have failed, with some being blacklisted and notices being issued to other violators. He said that the process for appointing a new State Drug Controller is underway and for the time being, additional charge has been given to another officer.

In response to a query by Churah MLA Hans Raj, Industries Minister Chauhan said considering the legal complications the Cabinet has constituted a sub-committee, headed by Deputy CM, to look at the issue. The minister said Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission, Hamirpur, was dissolved on February 21, 2023, due to paper leak and other irregularities. In order to ensure recruitment in a transparent manner, the Himachal Pradesh State Selection Commission was established on September 30, 2023.

“In such a situation, the question of reinstating the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission does not arise. A Cabinet sub-committee has been constituted to take a decision on the pending results of the examinations conducted by the Commission. After the recommendations of this committee, the decision to declare these examination results will be taken. These also include the result of JOA-IT,” he said adding that the government was working on a foolproof system to ensure that there were no legal hurdles in recruitment through the commission in future.

“Declaring the results without addressing all the legal issues could once again delay the entire process, which will prove to be even more damaging,” he said adding that the government was keen to declare the results at the earliest after addressing all the issues.