Patna, Feb. 9: The Bihar government has approved a proposal of dividing government employees and officials into four broad categories on the basis of their payscale. The proposal was approved in the cabinet meeting held today.
“The categorisation has been done in the light of the pay revision effected after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report and categorisation system followed by the central government,” special secretary of cabinet co-ordination department B.K. Singh told reporters.
Under the new system, the officials and employees would be divided into four broad categories. Group A will comprise government officials in the fixed payscale of Rs 80,000 and those in the payscale of Rs 75,500–Rs 80,000. This group will have two sub-categories with officials holding payscales of Rs 37,400–Rs 67,000 and Rs 15,600–Rs 39,100.
Employees in the payscale of Rs 9,300–Rs 34,800 comprise Group B and those in the payscale of Rs 5,200–Rs 20,200 make up Group C. Employees in the payscale of Rs 4,400–Rs 7,440 make up Group D.
Another major decision taken at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting pertains to the upward revision of scholarship amount given to students of SC/ST categories. According to the revised norms, SC/ST students of classes I to IV would get a monthly scholarship of Rs 50 per month in place of Rs 15. Students of classes V and VI under the same category would get a monthly scholarship of Rs 100 instead of Rs 30 and those in classes VII to X would get Rs 150 monthly scholarship in place of the existing Rs 55.
Students of classes I to VI belonging to Musahar and Bhuiyan communities would now get Rs 100 monthly scholarship in place of the existing Rs 30. SC/ST students pursuing technical courses would get monthly scholarship of Rs 500 in place of the existing Rs 150. This scholarship is given for 10 months of a year. In case such students are staying in hostels, an additional monthly scholarship of Rs 250 would be given to them in place of the existing Rs 80.
For sugarcane industries, the cabinet gave a proposal for exempting bidders from paying stamp duty on land lease and registration for those who take over closed sugar factories of Bihar State Sugar Corporation (BSSC). There are 15 sugar factories of BSSC of which six have been leased out to different bidders. The state government, however, has failed to attract bidders for the remaining nine closed units in spite of inviting bids for these units thrice.
The cabinet also approved setting up a state open school board that would pave the way for setting up open schools on the pattern of national open schools.
A total of 33 proposals were approved in Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
