Shimla, Jul 7 (IANS): A day after the central government expressed concern over tourist overcrowding at hill stations, the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Wednesday issued directions to local authorities to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour to contain the spread of the virus.

At a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here, the Cabinet relaxed the limit on gatherings, allowing a maximum of 200 persons in closed spaces. In open spaces, gatherings are allowed with 50 per cent capacity of the area.

It also decided to recommend to the Governor to convene the monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha from August 2 to August 13.

It gave its consent to bring children who lost both parents in the pandemic, under the ambit of Mukhya Mantri Bal Uddhar Yojna, enabling them to provide additional monthly assistance of Rs 1,500.

The Cabinet gave consent to increase the additional honorarium of the Accredited Social Health Activist (Asha) workers from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,750 per month. This would benefit 7,964 workers.

Also the Cabinet decided that in order to implement the new education policy, question papers for Class III, V and VIII will be set by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education and the marking and results would be declared at cluster, block and district level, respectively.

It granted six weeks' exemption in school internship in respect of diploma in elementary education for 2018-2020 batch.

It was decided the schools would remain closed for students till further orders and online study would continue as usual.

A decision was taken to promote first-year and second-year students of graduation to next class. The new and renewal of admissions would start in the colleges in the last week of July and the academic year would commence from August 16.