Shivraj Singh Chouhan government to merge departments with overlapping functions

BHOPAL: Apparently taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made his government leaner for delivering efficient governance, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh today decided to merge various departments having similar area of functioning.

"The government has decided to merge departments of similar nature, wherein Bio-Diversity department will be merged with Forest department. Similarly, departments of Biotechnology and Science, and Technology will come under the department of Information Technology. Housing and Environment department will be merged with Urban Administration department," an official release said here.

The decision to club departments whose functions overlap was taken by the state cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chouhan.

Among other decisions, the cabinet also decided to provide free education to destitute, rag-picker and wayward children by enrolling them in its ambitious " School Chale Hum" campaign to ensure that no child is deprived of education.

The cabinet also decided to create 337 posts of professors in government colleges across the state.

Similarly, 51 posts of assistant grade-3 and 51 posts of data entry operator will be created between June 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015 for the State Election Commission's district offices, to carry out works related to elections of urban civic bodies and three-tier panchayats.

Among other decisions taken were sanctioning of revised pay scales and allowances to officers of Medico-Legal Institute, Bhopal, at par with teaching cadre of medical colleges.

Earlier, the Cabinet paid homage to senior BJP leader and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde who died in a road accident in Delhi today.