DECISIONS BY COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

Besides the decision on power subidy, here are some key moves by the cabinet

Rental policy approved

The cabinet also approved a policy to facilitate housing accommodation on rent for students, corporate professionals and senior citizens. As per the policy applicable for group housing, the developer will have to pay lesser external development charges and lower charges for change of land use (CLU).

Guardian scheme extended

The Guardians of Governance (GoG) scheme, a dream project of Punjab CM, has been extended to three more districts —Gurdaspur, Patiala and Pathankot. The government says it has shown good results in five districts it was launched in the first phase. A total of 2000 ex-servicemen as guardians are proposed to be engaged. GoGs help government to oversee implementation of schemes, helps in transparency, identify shortcomings and promote accountability.

Finance dept recast

The finance department will see a recast by being divided into six directorates — expenditure, budget, treasury & accounts, human resource management, performance review & audit, banking & economic intelligence and lotteries & small savings. Manpreet said it was decided to recast the department as the system of financial dealings have changed drastically.

Division of excise, taxation

The Punjab excise and taxation department will be bifurcated into excise and taxation commissionerates for monitoring of the two most important revenuegenerating sources of the state. As many as 17 new posts in these two commissionerates were also given clearance by the cabinet.

Use central govt portal

The cabinet has also given approval to six state procurement agencies to use the central government portal and government e-Marketplace (GeM) for direct online purchases of goods and services. It will help online procurement of common use goods and services.

Officers to declare assets

The cabinet also gave nod to a proposal to make it mandatory for all Group A officers, including IAS, IPS and PCS officers, to disclose their assets. The cabinet also approved the proposal that the home department will have two posts of legal remembrances to advise the government on the legality of new enactments.