Shimla, Nov 23 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh government is contemplating increasing the marriage age of women to 21 years, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Thursday.

Sukhu, who was presiding over the annual prize distribution function of the Portmore Model Girls School in Shimla, said the government is exploring legal options to bring the proposal into implementation.

He said that 30 per cent reservation would be given to the women in police department recruitment.

The state government has taken a serious note of vacancies of the teachers in schools and will fill them up in a phased manner, the CM said in a statement issued here.

At the school, Sukhu laid the foundation stone of the girls hostel to be constructed with an outlay of Rs 5 crore and distributed tablets to 16 meritorious girl students under the Ramanujan Student Digital scheme.

A total of 7,520 Tablets will be distributed to girl students this fiscal, according to a government scheme.

The CM said that the government is providing a sum of Rs 25,000 to meritorious girl students for purchasing e-scooties and has launched the Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar Vidyarthi Rin (Loan) Yojna, under which, a loan amount of maximum Rs 20 lakh on one per cent interest will be given to the students.

Portmore is one of the oldest schools for girls in the state. PTI BPL VN VN