The Uttarakhand cabinet has decided to include the history of the movement for the creation of the state and the various dimensions of folk culture in the curriculum for classes six to eight.
Hamari Virasat aur Vibhutiyaan (Our Heritage and Personalities) will be included as an additional book for the said classes.
Another significant education-related decision taken by the Cabinet is that passing the three-year Polytechnic Diploma Examination conducted by the Uttarakhand Board of Technical Education after passing the Class-10 (High School) examination will be equivalent to passing Class-12 (Intermediate) of the state’s Board of School Education. Thus, candidates who clear the diploma exam will be eligible to take admission to undergraduate courses.
Among the other significant decisions announced today is the setting aside of Rs 2.30 crores for workshops, programmes and Mahila Samman Program for women self-help groups formed under the State Rural Livelihood Mission. An amount of Rs 15.40 crore will be provided for conducting business activities of women in Cluster Level Organisations.
For the purpose of making Lakhpati Didis, an amount of Rs 25.00 lakh will be provided for Almora and Pauri for Marketing Product Development and Quality Control Centers to be established through Rural Business Incubators.
From April 1, the state will also implement the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) in all the departments of the state of Uttarakhand. Where the New Pension Scheme (NPS) is applicable, employees will have the option to choose.
The state will also promulgate the Uttarakhand Government Servant Promotion Relaxation in Qualifying Service Rules, 2025 to maintain uniformity and consistency in the cases of promotion in the services under the state.
At present under the rules framed in 2010, which relaxes the norms for natives of the state in promotion; certain departments have been found to be promoting employees at their own level by providing arbitrary relaxations. Employees are also benefitting from double relaxation- in recruitment and then in promotion. With the new rules in place, this will stop.
