Punjab cabinet decisions: 2.15 lakh Class 12 students to get smartphones
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab cabinet on Monday approved the modalities for the distribution of mobile phones to nearly 2.15 lakh students of Class 12 for the academic session 2021-22 under the “Punjab Smart Connect Scheme”.
The state government has allotted a budget of Rs 100 crore to the school education department for the scheme for the current financial year. As many as 1,75,443 regular students (boys and girls) studying in Class 12 in government schools were given mobile phones last year, a spokesperson of the chief minister’s office said.
The spokesperson said that realising the benefit of imparting online education remotely to the students through the distributed smartphones, particularly in the adverse pandemic situation last year, the government decided to extend the scheme to the students to be admitted in Class 12 of the academic year 2021-22.
Nod to amend service commission regulation
To further speed up the process to fill nearly 1 lakh vacancies in various departments, boards, corporations and agencies of the state government, the cabinet also gave post-facto approval to amend Part-II B of the Punjab Public Service Commission Regulation, 1955, by putting these posts into commission’s purview. The Punjab Public Service Commission had brought to the notice of the state government that departments have sent their requisitions to it for direct recruitment of those vacancies that were earlier covered under Class III rules and which have been notified.
Approval for upkeep of circuit houses
To improve efficacy of available resources and optimise the utilisation of assets, the cabinet gave approval for redevelopment, operation and maintenance (O&M) of circuit houses at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar in PPP mode.
The spokesperson said that Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) being the nodal agency of the state has been authorised for taking necessary action in this regard. The general administration department (GAD) intends to develop and operate circuit houses at Ludhiana and Jalandhar in PPP mode to be operated as circuit houses-cum-hotels.
The department operates 10 circuit houses in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Patiala, Gurdaspur, Chandigarh and Shimla. In addition, there are two Punjab Bhawans in New Delhi and Chandigarh. These circuit houses were developed for stay of government officers/officials visiting different district headquarters for official work. “However, on account of recurrent expenditure on maintenance and updating of the facilities of circuit houses led to financial burden on the state government. The quality of services has also gone down significantly,” a spokesperson said.