The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday (October 25, 2025) decided to extend the terms of Mayors and Deputy Mayors of municipal corporations from two-and-a-half years to five years.
The decision will benefit the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, whose two-and-a-half-year term is expiring in November 2025.
Briefing media persons in Shimla, Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said a two-and-a-half-year term was raising apprehensions of horse-trading and pointed out that the term in panchayati raj institutions is five years.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also gave a nod to enhance the honorarium of 510 Special Police Officers (SPOs), including 403 in tribal and 107 in non-tribal areas, by ₹300 per month.
It also accorded ex-post facto approval for the enhancement of honorarium of ₹500 per month of School Management Committee (SMC) teachers, including Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT), classical and vernacular teachers, Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers, lecturers, and diploma and primary education (DPEs), mid-day meal workers, and part-time water carriers.
