Punjab govt widens health insurance cover
CABINET DECISION State govt employees, pensioners, besides staffers of boards and corporations and those in the organised pvt sector to benefit; ₹501 cr approved for Covid fight
CHANDIGARH:The Punjab cabinet on Wednesday gave an approval to provide health insurance cover to all state government employees and pensioners besides the employees of various boards and corporations and those in the organised private sector.
The decision was taken in a video-conferencing meeting chaired by chief minister Amarinder Singh through.
A government spokesperson said the department of health and family welfare has been asked to prepare a detailed proposal for inclusion of the new categories into the ambit of the scheme, which provides a family an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per year to benefit 42.27 lakh poor and other families. The scheme will now be extended from August 20, 2020, to August 19, 2021.
The spokesperson said of the 42.27 lakh families currently under the scheme cover, 14.86 lakh poor families had been identified as per the ‘Socio-Economic
Caste Census’ of 2011. Of the remaining 16.30 lakh families are smart ration card holder, 11.10 lakh J-form holder farmers, sugarcane growers having ‘weighment’ slips, construction workers, and families of accredited journalists and small traders.
AUTOMATIC RENEWAL OF LICENCE TO INDUSTRIALISTS
To become eligible to avail additional borrowing of 2% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) in 2020-21, and to further boost ease of doing business, the cabinet also allowed facility of automatic renewal of licence and maintenance of register in electronic/digital format to the industries.
As per the new rule, a licence will be renewed for one year digitally through automation mode if there is no change in particulars of the licence.
The move, said the government spokesperson, is in line with the directives of the union ministry of finance for eligibility to procure additional borrowing of 2% of GSDP, subject to implementation of specific state-level reforms by January 31 next year.
GO-AHEAD TO RELEASE ₹1,046 CR TO LOCAL BODIES DEPARTMENT
The cabinet also gave the go-ahead to release Rs 1,046 crore to the local bodies department under the phase 2 of the Punjab Urban Environment Improvement Programme (PUEIP).
The cabinet gave its approval for Rs 501.07 crore expenditure incurred so far by the state government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Rs 76.07 crore was spent by the health sector response and procurement committee for purchase of equipment and relief, while Rs 425 crore was spent by various departments out of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and budgetary resources set aside for the management and control of the pandemic.