The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet cleared the decks for setting up of a regulatory body to monitor and regulate the functioning of private universities,at least a dozen of which are functioning in the state. It approved the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions (Regulatory Commission) Rules,2011,framed under the Private Universities (Establishment and Regulations) Act. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal presided over the meeting on Monday. Principal Secretary (Education) Srikant Baldi said: The government has already set up a search committee headed by the chief secretary to invite applications from the persons of eminence in education,public life and also the administration to constitute a three-member commission,which will oversee the functioning of the private universities and also look into the complaints against them. The commission will have the powers to order closure of the universities and impose heavy penalties. The Cabinet also granted its approval to enhance the capacity of 23 small hydro electric projects. The amended power policy provides for higher rate of free power as royalty where the capacity enhancement is more than 20 per cent. In another decision,it decided to allow private power producers to dispose of the power from the projects after allowing royalty to the government in the shape of free power. Other Cabinet decisions * Recruitment of 5,000 teachers of different categories in various educational institutions * Nod to introduce informatics practices as a compulsory subject in the Arts stream and as an optional subject in other streams in senior secondary schools. To create 970 posts of post-graduate teachers to teach the subject through rationalisation * Approval to compensate farmers of Una and adjoining districts on account of the loss incurred in wheat production due to high incidence of yellow rust * Uniformity in the salary and commission of all 528 bus conductors deployed with HRTC and JNNURM buses. They will be provided Rs 2,000 per month as retaining fee * Approval to filling up 307 Class IV posts in all deputy commissioner and subordinate offices by secondment from the surplus pool * Nod to sell free power share in Karchham-Wangtoo Hydro Electric Project through Power Trading Corporation till the project starts regular generation
