A total of 19 decisions were taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The state cabinet on Tuesday (December 9, 2025) approved the creation of three new departments to ensure better and effective implementation of its schemes and policies in order to achieve the government’s target of providing jobs and employment opportunities to one crore youth in the next five years.
The three newly created departments are Youth, Employment & Skill Development, Higher Education, and Civil Aviation. These departments are in addition to the existing 45 government departments at present, Cabinet Secretariat Department’s Additional Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar Chaudhary told reporters in a post cabinet briefing.
A total of 19 decisions were taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday (December 9, 2025).
“Youth, Employment & Skill Development has been created for all round development of youth by equipping them with skill development to be eligible for getting employment opportunities while higher education department’s job will be to provide quality education in the state and civil aviation has been created to deal with the expanding aviation sector in the state and also to provide and make air travel better in the state,” Mr. Chaudhary said.
The cabinet also rechristened the animal and fisheries resources department as “dairy, fisheries and animal resources department” while labour resources department will now be known as “labour resources and migrant workers welfare department” whereas department of art, culture and youth department will be known as “art and culture” department, Mr. Chaudhary added.
The cabinet also approved the industries department’s proposal to rechristen “Directorate of Technical Development” as “Directorate of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME)” to further strengthen the sector in order to make it globally competitive.
In another important decision, the cabinet also approved a 5% increase in dearness allowance (DA) for its employees, pensioners and family pensioners who are getting salary/pension as per the 6th pay commission’s recommendations, he said adding that the DA has been hiked from 252 to 257% which will be payable with effect from July 1, 2025.
Similarly, it also hiked 8% DA for its employees, pensioners and family pensioners who are getting salary/pension as per the 5th pay commission’s recommendations, Mr. Chaudhary said adding that the DA has been hiked from 466 to 474 per cent which will be payable with effect from July 01, 2025.
It also approved the disaster management department’s proposal to declare two districts of Gaya Ji & Munger as “Civil Defence Districts” and also approved the creation of 14 posts for the purpose, Mr. Chaudhary added the move would help in dealing with strategic and internal security apart from timely tackling the problems of natural and man made disasters in the two districts.
The cabinet also approved the appointment of Mohammad Imdad Raza on the compassionate ground, he said adding that Raza is the son of BSF Sub-Inspector late Mohammad Imtiyaz who was martyred during “Operation Sindoor”.
It also sanctioned ₹400 crore for payment of electricity dues of urban local bodies that it owes to both the power distribution companies (North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd) for financial year 2025-26.
The cabinet approved the finance department’s proposal for signing an MoU with National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSEIL), Mumbai to empower youth of the state and also for running “Student Skilling Programme”.
Published – December 10, 2025 08:05 am IST
