Himachal Cabinet decides to double terms of Mayors, Deputy Mayors to five years

The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday (October 25, 2025) decided to extend the terms of Mayors and Deputy Mayors of municipal corporations from two-and-a-half years to five years.

The decision will benefit the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, whose two-and-a-half-year term is expiring in November 2025.

Briefing media persons in Shimla, Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said a two-and-a-half-year term was raising apprehensions of horse-trading and pointed out that the term in panchayati raj institutions is five years.

The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also gave a nod to enhance the honorarium of 510 Special Police Officers (SPOs), including 403 in tribal and 107 in non-tribal areas, by ₹300 per month.

It also accorded ex-post facto approval for the enhancement of honorarium of ₹500 per month of School Management Committee (SMC) teachers, including Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT), classical and vernacular teachers, Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers, lecturers, and diploma and primary education (DPEs), mid-day meal workers, and part-time water carriers.

Both the decisions would be implemented with effect from April 1, 2025, a statement said.

The Cabinet decided to allow the Transport Department to grant permission for the conversion of 1,000 petrol and diesel taxis into electric vehicles with a provision of 40% subsidy under the Rajiv Gandhi Swarojgar Yojana.

It approved the proposal to streamline the implementation and efficient monitoring mechanism of Prakritic Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojna and Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Project (JICA-Phase-II). This mechanism will go a long way in fostering coherence between the departments concerned, besides ensuring efficient governance and execution under the flagship programmes of the projects.

Further, the Cabinet decided to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi, to finalise the draft of Rural Area Development guidelines to be adopted by gram panchayats in the form of model by-laws to regulate construction activities in the rural areas.

Rural Development Minister Anirudh Singh, Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh and Town and Country Planning Minister Rajesh Dharmani will be the members of this Cabinet sub-committee.

It gave its approval to include 19 games in the list of games that qualify meritorious sportspersons for consideration for appointment to posts under the State Government departments, boards, and corporations.

These games include baseball, para sports, rugby triathlon, deaf sports, mallakhamb, kudo, motor sports, pencak silat, shooting ball, soft tennis, roll ball, tenpin bowling, tug-of-war, fencing, netball, sepak takraw, wushu, and kickboxing.

The Cabinet approved the creation of a separate and specific State cadre for junior office assistant (IT) under the Directorate of Recruitment by creating 300 posts as Job Trainee in the first phase.

The approval was also given for the construction of Nahan Medical College at the newly selected land for the expansion of the college. The Cabinet also agreed to grant ex-post facto permission for new post-graduation and super specialty courses to regulate admissions in these courses in the Department of Medical Education and Research.

It also gave a nod to the framing of the new Resident Doctors Policy-2025. The Cabinet accorded, in principle, approval to the proposal of the Health Department for framing a policy to regulate the appointment of assistant staff nurses.

It also approved the amendments in the scheme for setting up ground-mounted solar power projects with interest subsidy of five and four per cent to bona fide Himachal residents ranging from 100-KW to 2-MW in tribal and non-tribal areas, respectively.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to establish a Tourism Investment Promotion Council (TIPC), which would work on a mechanism to attract, evaluate, and facilitate tourism investments efficiently and transparently.

The Cabinet gave its approval to allow 15 days' paternity leave to contractual employees in the State.