Proposal on jobs for Cong MLAs’ sons not taken up in Punjab cabinet meet
CHANDIGARH : The proposal to appoint sons of two Congress MLAs as a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and a tehsildar was not taken up in the Punjab cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Chief minister Amarinder Singh chaired the meeting that was held through video conferencing. Of the 34 items, including the Punjab Pay Commission report, for discussion, only three were taken up since the state government’s focus is in Delhi where the threemember high-powered committee is listening to the grievances of dissenting ministers and MLAs, it was learnt.
The cabinet gave its approval to carving out Malerkotla as the 23rd district of the state, as was announced earlier by Amarinder Singh. The CM on Eid-ul-Fitr (May 14) had announced the decision to make Malerkotla a full-fledged district, fulfilling a long-standing demand of local residents.
The council of ministers also gave the go-ahead for upgrading Amargarh sub-tehsil, as a subdivision/tehsil. Malerkotla district will consist of three sub-divisions — Malerkotla, Ahmedgarh and Amargarh — which will have 192 villages, 62 patwar circles and 6 kanungo circles.
The cabinet authorised the CM to approve the creation of new posts for offices of 12 departments viz. police; rural development and panchayats; social justice and minorities; agriculture and farmer welfare; social security and women and child development; health; education (primary and secondary); social security, employment generation; industry and commerce; food, civil supplies and consumer affairs; and finance.
The cabinet also approved creation of special purpose vehicle (SPV) for operation and maintenance of large multi-village surface water supply schemes across the state. The SPV will be a utility company ‘Punjab Rural Water (Utility) Company’ under the water supply
NOD TO CARVING OUT MALERKOTLA AS 23RD DISTRICT OF THE STATE; AMARGARH UPGRADED AS SUB-DIVISION
and sanitation department.
The council of minister also accorded approval to open an account in the name of the SPV, with seed money of Rs 25 crore allocated from the World Bank funds (64%) and state budget (36%) to support its functioning for first five years.
The water supply and sanitation department is in the process of executing five new multi-village surface water supply projects covering 612 villages of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts, and another project covering 408 villages in fluoride-hit blocks of Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. Another project, covering 39 villages of Rupnagar district affected by iron/arsenic, was commissioned in 2019. Besides, a project in Moga district, based on the design, build operate and transfer (DBOT) model, was completed in January 2021 at Rs 218.56 crore.