The state government's announcement came after government employees' unions demanded the same following the Supreme Court's April 2014 judgment which upholds a two-year child care leave, including for children's needs like examinations and sickness, to the central government women employees.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made an announcement to the effect in May this year and the state government issued the order on August 22, 2015 amending the Madhya Pradesh Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1977.

The order says, 'The leave cannot be claimed as a matter of right and a woman employee can avail herself of the leave for her two children below the age of 18 years including legally adopted children or children below the age of 22 years with a minimum disability of 40 per cent.'

During the period of child-care leave, the woman government servant will be paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave. Also, child care leave may be combined with the leave of any other kind. The leave account shall be maintained separately and entry shall be made in the service book of the concerned woman government servant.

State president of the women's wing, 'Government Clerical Employees Union' UshaBokde said they were 'extremely happy' with the order.

Mantralaya Karmachari Sangh's Sudhir Nayak said once the order was implemented the practical problems would come to light and they would have a talk with the government to sort it out.

Already, the state government has implemented a clutch of schemes including Ladli Laxmi Yojana, Jnani Express Yojana etc to better the sex ratio and to remove the perception that daughters are a 'burden' on their families.

The State government has also initiated several steps to make Simhastha 2016 to be held in the holy city of Ujjain a grand success.

The government has planned a series of big-ticket promotional events abroad to attract Indian Diaspora to the Simhastha 2016. Millions of people bathe in the Kshipra River in Ujjain during Simhastha for spiritual and material welfare when auspicious astrological combinations return after a cycle of 12 years, as per the Hindu mythology. The congregation is scheduled to begin in April next year. As a legend goes, the cosmic event mingles nectar into the river water, which the Hindus believe relieves them of physical and spiritual afflictions.

The decision to organise promotional events abroad and in India was taken after a review meeting between chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the tourism department officials recently.

According to officials, events at the United States of America, Europe, Indonesia, Fiji, Mauritius and nearby islands form the first phase. So far, the dates of two events have been finalised and talks are on for the others.

The first event will be organised from November 2 to 5 at the World Travel Mart in London and another from March 9 to 13, 2016 at the International Tourism Berlin in Berlin, the officials said, adding that international seminars on Indian culture would also be part of the events.

The state government has also decided to promote the religious event within the country through road shows. This will begin from Nagpur on September 14. Other road shows will be organised at Pune on October 10, Surat on November 20, Mumbai on December 11, Hyderabad in January 15, 2016 and Ahmedabad on February 12, 2016. A section of officials said that the main objective of the big show for the big event was to rebuild Madhya Pradesh’s image, which has suffered a dent because of the Vyapam scam.

Simhastha 2016 is expected to attract an estimated five crore domestic and foreign devotees, the officials said, adding special arrangements are being made at Ujjain and a mini-city is coming up at Ujjain on 3000 hectare land.

Meanwhile seven cities of Madhya Pradesh have been included in the list of cities which are to be developed as smart cities. After Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh has got the maximum cities shortlisted under the smart cities project.

Seven cities of the state feature in the list of 98 cities selected for development as smart cities that was released by the Central government recently. The selected cities are Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Sagar, Satna and Ujjain.

According to the Principal secretary of state urban administration, Malay Srivastava the state government 'welcomes the announcement' and would now push these seven cities for inclusion in the top 20 cities under second phase of the competition. 'It will usher in a new era of development in these cities,' he said.

Srivastava said that according to the guidelines for the smart cities project released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June, MP had to nominate seven cities based on four broad criteria and 13 sub-criteria.

'We evaluated major cities based on these criteria and nominated the top seven scorers,' he said.

The evaluation revealed Bhopal as the top scorer, followed by Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Sagar, Satna, Burhanpur, Ujjain, Dewas and Katni, Based on this evaluation, the state government had sent nomination for seven cities. As Ujjain and Burhanpur had achieved almost the same score, the state government initially wanted to nominate Burhanpur, reasoning that Ujjain was already being developed for Simhastha 2016.

However, Ujjain was chosen to ensure it can also compete for top 20, said officials.

According to officials, the seven cities will have to prepare city-level smart city plans, which will be evaluated in the second phase of the competition to feature in the top 20 cities and the rest will be asked to improve upon the identified deficiencies for participating in the next two rounds of competition.

Cities selected in the top 20 would be provided with central assistance of Rs. 200 crore in the first year, followed by Rs. 100 crore each year for the next three years. (IPA Service)