Application fee of cancelled junior office assistant hiring to be refunded: Himachal CM

Shimla, Sep 1 (PTI) The application fee of candidates who had applied for the junior office assistant post, which was cancelled later, would be refunded, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu told the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Monday.

As many as 15,203 persons had applied for the post, which was cancelled due to some administrative reasons and the government would refund the fee soon, he said in a written reply. The chief minister clarified that this refers to the vacancies of junior office assistant (information technology) JOA (IT) post code 965 that was cancelled by Karamchari Chayan Aayog.

He added that these posts would be advertised again after getting information from the departments.

The Karamchari Chayan Aayog has decided to fix Rs 800 as fee for all posts and Rs 120 for reserved category candidates.

In reply to another question, the CM said that 88 liquor vends could not be auctioned as there were no bidders.

He said that a revenue of Rs 857.91 crore was received from the auction of liquor vends and payments amounting Rs 98.43 crore was pending.

Sukhu added that 264 cases of smuggling of liquor were registered during 2025-26 and 88 cases were disposed of after imposing penalty, while FIRs have been registered in the remaining cases.

Education Minister Rohit Thakur wrote, in a reply to a query, that Rajiv Gandhi Day-Boarding Schools have been sanctioned in 21 assembly constituencies in eight districts up to July 31, 2025 with administrative approval and funds for construction.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri informed the House 677 new buses are being planned to be added to the Himachal Roads Transport (HRTC) fleet during this financial year, which includes 327 e-buses.

At present, the HRTC fleet has 3,087 buses, which includes 98 Volvo buses and 110 e-buses, he added. PTI BPL SKY SKY