PUNJAB CABINET GIVES NOD TO OVER 26K JOBS

Posts to be filled in Groups A, B and C across home affairs, education, health and power depts

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab cabinet on Monday approved recruitments to 26,454 posts lying vacant at different levels in various government departments of the state government. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by chief minister Bhagwant Mann.

The AAP, while campaigning for the recently held state elections, had promised the protesting unemployed youths to start recruitments immediately after assuming power in Punjab.

According to a spokesperson of the chief minister’s office (CMO), the posts to be filled belong to Groups A, B and C in departments of home affairs, school education, health, power and technical education. The number of posts in different departments will be announced later.

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab cabinet on Monday approved recruitments to 26,454 posts lying vacant at different levels in various government departments of the state government. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by chief minister Bhagwant Mann.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), while campaigning for the recently held state elections, had promised the protesting unemployed youths to start recruitments immediately after assuming power in Punjab.

According to a spokesperson of the chief minister’s office (CMO), the posts to be filled belong to Groups A, B and C in departments of home affairs, school education, health, power and technical education. The number of posts in different departments will be announced later. The cabinet has directed the administrative departments to ensure fair and timebound recruitment. “It has also been decided that interviews would not be conducted for the recruitment for Group-c posts,” said the spokesperson.

‘One MLA, one pension’ gets nod

The cabinet also paved the way for implementing the “one MLA, one pension” scheme, which was announced by the chief minister (CM) after the formation of the AAP government in March.

The cabinet approved amendment to the Punjab State Legislature Members (Pension and Medical Facilities Regulation)

Act, 1977, which would make former MLAS eligible for a single pension irrespective of the number of terms served by them.

There are around 300 former MLAS in Punjab who are drawing pension. The state government intends to save around ₹19.53 crore annually with this move. The decision is in line with the demand raised by the AAP as the principal opposition party during the previous Congress-led government in the state.

According to the amendment, former state legislators would get pension at the rate of ₹60,000 per month besides dearness allowance (DA). Taking into consideration the new DA scheme, former MLAS will get around ₹1.2 lakh along with other applicable allowances.

The new system scraps the existing provision, under which a former MLA is being paid a pension of ₹15,000 per month plus DA for the first term, and an additional pension of ₹10,000 per month plus DA for every subsequent term. It comes to around ₹75,000 and ₹50,000, respectively, after adding the DA. Akali patriarch and fivetime CM Parkash Singh Badal, who remained MLA for 10 terms, was entitled to a lump sum pension of around ₹ 6 lakh per month, which he had announced to forgo after losing the recent elections.

Amnesty scheme for transporters

The cabinet also gave its nod to the state transport department’s amnesty scheme for commercial vehicle operators.

Last month, Mann had announced that the transporters whose business suffered due to the coronavirus lockdown could pay their motor vehicle tax without any penalty in the next three months.

“In a bid to give much-needed relief to commercial vehicle

operators, the cabinet gave a go-ahead to the state transport department’s amnesty scheme from May 6 to August 5 for collecting the motor vehicle tax,” said the CMO spokesperson. “However, the department will neither collect interest nor late fee while issuing the fitness certificate,” said the spokesperson.

According to the rules, fitness certificate is issued to only those vehicles for which the tax has been paid.

Relief for cotton farmers in Muktsar

Giving relief to cotton farmers in Muktsar district, who suffered massive losses due to the pink bollworm attack in 2021, the cabinet approved disbursal of ₹41.89 crore to them.

The matter was taken up by the state government after farmers from the district — where cotton is grown over 70,000 acres — complained that their entire crop was damaged but they were not adequately compensated. According to the cabinet decision, ₹5,400 per acre has been fixed as compensation, assuming 50% loss to the crop across the district. Out of the total compensation, ₹38.08 crore will be released to affected farmers and ₹3.81 crore to farm labourers out of the state budget.

Earlier, ₹644 crore was given to cotton growers in Mansa, Sangrur, Bathinda, Barnala and Muktsar. It included ₹4.74 crore given to farmers and ₹47.44 lakh to farm labourers in Muktsar.

No decision on blending imported coal

The cabinet was apprised about the Union power ministry’s advisory issued in December last year to use imported coal for blending to the extent of 4% in the current financial year (2022-23) and to take steps to arrange imported coal by May 2022, before the onset of rainy season, to build up coal stocks.

The ministry on April 28, 2022, had again advised that government and private thermal power plants must import coal for blending purposes so as to meet 10% of the total requirement. The ministry has instructed the state to place orders for imported coal by May 31. The move aims at overcoming shortage of domestic coal supply. The financial implications of usage of imported coal were also placed before the cabinet by the state power department. However, no decision was taken, it is learnt.

Generally, the coal demand decreases substantially post paddy season, and subsequently the requirement of imported coal declines after October. The cabinet approved annual and audit reports for the year 2015-16 and 2016-17 of the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and also allowed it to present them before the state legislative assembly.