DW BUREAU /Shimla

The Himachal Pradesh cabinet in its meeting held here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu gave a nod to the state Rajya Chayan Aayog to go ahead with the process of declaration of results of junior officer

assistants.

The Cabinet approved the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee constituted to examine the legal aspects of the results of Junior Officer Assistant (Information Technology) held up on account of vigilance inquiry of the disbanded Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC).

The committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri had given its recommendation on March 7.

The results of JOA (IT) and some other examinations were withheld after the vigilance pointed out irregularities in examinations conducted by HPSSC on detection of paper leak on December 23, 2022. The vigilance arrested the commission's senior assistant Uma Azad with solved question paper and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, and later also the results of several examinations.

The HPSSC was scrapped and later replaced by Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog.

Agnihotri had on March 7 said after due deliberations, unanimous decision has been taken by the sub-committee to announce the results for all the candidates who had appeared in the JOA (IT) post code 817 exams, except those seven candidates, against whom FIR has been registered in the paper leak case.

"We believe that the decision taken by the sub-committee will give enough relief to the candidates sitting on a continuous hunger strike since the past few days demanding declaration of the results of JOA (IT) post code 817," he had said.

Over two lakh candidates had appeared for this examination.

Two of the six Congress rebels -- Sudhir Sharma and Rajinder Rana, who cross voted in favour of the BJP in the recent Rajya Sabha polls -- were also vocal against the state government for quite some time and had advocated for early declaration of results, maintaining that the job aspirants are getting over age and frustrated due to the delay.

Even the Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh, who offered his resignation from the cabinet on August 28, had also maintained that the job-seekers are sitting on dharnas for early declaration of results.

Later, Congress central observer Bhupinder Hooda had said Singh had withdrawn his resignation.

Meanwhile, the state cabinet decided to fill up 113 posts of drivers in the Home Guards and Civil Defence Department and 50 posts of clerks in the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat through direct recruitment.

It gave its approval to convert class-IV part time workers, who have completed seven years of service as on March 31, 2024, to daily wagers in various government

departments.
(editor@dailyworld.in)