IMPHAL, December 17: The Manipur cabinet has today approved the recruitment of 2000 Manipur Police constables to be deployed at the sites of the under construction Imphal-Jiribam Railway line and construction of a district hospital each for Imphal East and Imphal West, informed a source.
According to a source, the cabinet meeting on Monday evening chaired by the state Chief Minister Okram Ibobi had also approved the construction of GNM colleges in four hill districts of the state.
The cabinet meeting was convened at the conference hall of the Chief Minister’s Cabinet Secretariat since 3pm this evening.
During the meeting, the state cabinet had discussed the security problems and issues regarding the ongoing construction of the Jiribam-Imphal Railway line, and approved the recruitment of 2000 Manipur Police (civil) constables at the earliest, informed the source.
It is also learnt that the cabinet had approved that the newly recruited constables will be used to man and provide security to the work sites of the railway line and the works undertaken for the implementation of the Loktak Downstream project, which the government has been trying unsuccessfully to implement for some time.
The total sanctioned strength of the Manipur Police Constable at present is 33000 constables, however at present the Manipur Police has a posted strength of 28000 constables at present which means that there are 5000 constable post still vacant, informed the source.
Even though the vacant posts of 5000 constables from the sanctioned posts need to be filled up at the earliest, the present unsound economic condition of the state has incapacitate it from filling the whole vacant post and as such had to recruit only 2000 constables for the moment, the source informed.
Meanwhile, today’s cabinet had also approved the construction of district hospitals for the twin district of Imphal East and Imphal West.
The cabinet approved the construction of a hospital each at Sagolmang, Imphal East and Mayang Imphal, Imphal West soon.
Each district hospital will be constructed at the cost of Rs 33.13 crore with funding under the Special Central Assistance of the centre.
The cabinet had also approved that in order to shorten the required land acquisition process for the said two district hospitals; it will be done through the Direct Purchase System, the source informed.
It is also learnt that the cabinet had also decided to direct the concern authorities including the DCs or the SDOs to expedite the process to start work on the project at the earliest.
Other decisions approved during the meeting include opening of GNM schools one each in UKhrul, Senapati, Chandel and Tamenglong districts of the state.
Each school will be constructed at a cost of Rs 10 crore, the source informed.
The funding for the GNM schools will be from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GOI with 15 percent state share, informed the source.
Today’s state cabinet had also approved to appoint a Commissioner (disability) under the Social Welfare department and that in order to incorporate the new appointment; the required Rules/Regulation will be amended first.
