In a significant decision, the Punjab Cabinet on Monday gave nod to amend section 2(g) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 — giving the exclusive ownership of Jumla Mustarka Malkan land, the common village land, to gram panchayat.

 “With this amendment, the Gram Panchayat will be the exclusive owner of the Jumla Mustarka Malkan land (common village land),” said a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s office after the meeting.

 The spokesperson said that as per the amendment, insertion in Section 2(g) has been made according to which land reserved for the common purposes of a village, under section 18 of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948 (East Punjab Act 50 of 1948), the management and control whereof vests in the Gram Panchayat under section 23-A of the aforesaid Act.

 Lands entered in the column of ownership of record of rights as Jumla Malkan Wa Digar Haqdaran Arazi Hassab Rasad", "Jumla Malkan" or "Mushtarka Malkan" shall be shamilat deh within the meaning of this section, added the spokesperson.

 Incentives for paddy straw-based standalone bio-fuel units

To check the menace of paddy straw burning by its effective management, the Cabinet also approved the amendment in the state’s Industrial and Business Development Policy-2017 and Detailed Schemes and Operational Guidelines-2018 for bio-fuel projects by extending the incentives to the standalone Bio-Fuel units, provided they install boilers based on paddy straw as fuel.

 To promote the production and supply of Ethanol for Ethanol-Blended Petrol Program and to attract investments in the State for manufacturing of bio-fuel, the Cabinet also approved the amendment for the standalone Bio-Fuel units provided they install boilers based on Paddy Straw as fuel.

 Since, the technology for use of boilers based on Paddy Straw is still evolving, in such cases where the units are not able to install boilers based on paddy straw as fuel, the quantum of incentive shall be reduced by 50 percent.

 Amendments in telecom infra guidelines to pave way for 5G

The Cabinet also approved amendments in the Telecom Infrastructure Guidelines-2020 in line with the Amendment in Rules 2021 of Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules-2016, for setting up of Over Ground Telecommunication Infrastructure, including setting up of Small Cells on Street Furniture in the state of Punjab, and Guidelines Regularization Towers 2022.

 This will allow provision for usage of street furniture for installation of new generation Small Cells to enable deployment of 5G or 4G (digital infrastructure) roll out and for setting up Over the Ground Telecommunication thereby improving the means of communications and immensely benefitting the people of state.

 Approved amendment in punjab gst act-2017

The Cabinet also gave a go ahead to amend the Punjab Goods and Services Tax Act-2017 for enabling ease of doing business in the State and facilitating the taxpayers. The amendment will also help in streamlining provisions relating to refund and rationalizing those related to furnishing of return. This will also ensure levying of interest only on input tax credit wrongly availed and utilized.

 Proposal to setup bulk drug park on Bathinda thermal park’s site withdrawn

The Cabinet also gave green signal to withdraw the proposal for setting up of Bulk Drug Park at Bathinda over the site of Thermal Plant, as the land can be judiciously utilized for citizen-centric projects like Housing or Modern Residential Complex, hotel or commercial projects and other projects like plastic park, solar power, and others. Pertinently, the Punjab Government had submitted a proposal for setting up of Bulk Drug Park at Bathinda (at the site of Thermal Plant) in October 2020 under the scheme of setting up of Bulk Drug Park in the Country. However, even after more than one and a half year, the project is still hanging in the fire and waiting for the approval by Government of India (GoI).