Arunachal Cabinet clears education reforms, transfer Bill, climate action measures

Itanagar, Mar 2 (PTI) The Arunachal Pradesh Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, on Monday approved a series of decisions focusing on education reforms, strengthening of financial and health administration, employee welfare, and climate action, besides clearing key recruitment and pay-related proposals across departments.

The highlight of the meeting was the approval of five major agendas concerning the education department, including proposals to regulate teacher transfers through legislation, grant professorship to college teachers, amend recruitment rules for principals, frame rules for Physical Education Teachers, and revise the state’s seat reservation policy for diploma and allied courses.

The Cabinet also approved placing the Arunachal Pradesh Transfer and Posting of Employees of Education Department (Regulation & Management) Bill, 2026, in the ensuing Assembly session beginning March 6, an official statement said.

The proposed law seeks to replace the existing policy-based transfer system with a statutory, transparent and technology-enabled mechanism linked to a fully automated Teachers’ Registry Portal.

Recruitment rules for physical education teachers under the secondary education department were also approved to ensure transparent and systematic appointments in government schools.

In higher education, the Cabinet approved granting professorship to government college teachers under the Career Advancement Scheme in line with UGC Regulations, 2018, to promote quality research and academic excellence.

It also cleared amendments to the recruitment rules for the post of principal in government colleges to align with updated UGC norms.

Further, the Cabinet approved the amendment of the existing reservation policy for diploma, PCM, PCB and allied seats.

Under the revised policy, 20 per cent seats earlier reserved for non-APST candidates have been de-reserved and brought under open quota, while 80 per cent seats will remain reserved for APST candidates.

In administrative matters, the Cabinet approved creation of 15 posts under the Arunachal Pradesh Finance and Accounts Service Cadre, including five senior finance and accounts officers and ten finance and accounts officers/treasury officers, to strengthen financial administration.

Grade pay upgrade for the post of charge-man in the civil aviation department and pay parity for inspectors (JICS/JACS and SICS/SACS) in the cooperation department were cleared based on recommendations of the high-level standing committee on pay anomalies.

To strengthen public health regulation, the Cabinet approved notification of recruitment rules for deputy drugs controller (Group-A) and framing of recruitment rules for senior food safety officer in the Health and Family Welfare department, aligning them with the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and 7th Central Pay Commission norms.

A one-time relaxation in the recruitment rules for superintending engineer, 2014, in the power department was also approved to meet administrative requirements.

The Cabinet additionally launched the Pakke Declaration Implementation Report-2025, reviewing progress of the Pakke Tiger Reserve–2047 Declaration on climate-resilient development adopted in November 2021.

According to the report, out of 410 action lines under 75 climate-resilient strategies being implemented by 23 departments, 246 have been completed, 70 are ongoing and 94 are at the initiation stage.

An investment of Rs 802.6 crore has been mobilised for the initiatives.

The state government reiterated its commitment to good governance, transparency, human resource development and sustainable growth through the approved measures. PTI UPL UPL MNB