To ensure wider competitive participation with increased transparency and at the same time reducing frivolous litigation, Punjab Cabinet on Friday gave nod to the new Punjab Food Grains Labour Policy – 2022 and the revised Punjab Food Grains Transportation Policy – 2022.
“The revised transportation policy is now in sync with the Custom Milling Policy for procurement and milling of paddy, approved by the Cabinet a few days back. The revised transportation policy mandates, for the first time ever, the installation of vehicle tracking systems in every vehicle used for transportation of food grains procured by the government,” said the spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office after the meeting.
The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has already initiated the process of empanelling companies, which provide vehicle tracking systems, and making the existing Anaaj Khareed Portal compatible with these systems.
Likewise, the new Labour Policy aims at ensuring wider participation of Labour Associations by abolishing the prevailing Labour and Cartage Policy.
The existing Labour and Cartage Policy, prevailing for past many decades, was perceived by many to favour participation of contractors, since it involved providing labour and transportation services by the same person. But the new Policy has “completely delinked labour and transportation services thereby providing increased opportunities to Labour Associations to directly participate in the tender process, which will directly increase their incomes by removing the contractor margin”, explained the spokesperson.
Highlighting the aspects of the Labour and Transportation Policies, the spokesperson said that every effort has been made to make the system completely transparent by removing certain existing provisions, which were sometimes open to abuse and often caused frivolous litigations. An important step in this regard was taken by completely eliminating the submission of manual documents during the tender process, as many tenders were often rejected on account of minor discrepancies in their submission, he said.
In consonance with the government's policy to encourage new entrepreneurs, the policy has, for the first time, allowed participation in tenders without any requirement of past experience.
The requirement of submitting physical details of registration certificates of trucks and Aadhar numbers of labour, which often resulted in rejection of bids due to minor discrepancies and subsequently caused frivolous litigations, has also been done away with.
Elaborating further, the spokesperson said that the policy has limited the size of tendered cluster to 50,000 MT. This, in turn, is expected to reduce the requirement of vehicles and labour in a cluster, thereby increasing competition.
Earlier, there was no yardstick for determining the size of a cluster, which varied from as low as 5000 MT to more than two lakh MT, he explained. Both the policies have now made the Deputy Commissioner the chairman of the tender committee.
APPROVAL TO FILL UP 359 POSTS IN AGRI DEPT
The State Cabinet has also given approval to fill up 359 vacancies of direct recruitment in various cadres of the technical side of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. These posts including 200 of Agriculture Development Officers, 150 of Agriculture Sub Inspectors, and nine of Laboratory Assistants will be filled without any restructuring. Spokesperson said that there has been acute shortage of officers or employees in the department due to which its working had been affected adversely. Filling up of these posts will help the Department in smooth implementation of the agriculture development schemes and in hassle free delivery of facilities to the farmers.
NOD TO FILL 80 POSTS OF CIVIL JUDGES
To expedite the process of recruiting new Judicial Officers to ensure speedy dispensation of work at the Subordinate Courts, the Cabinet has decided to fill 80 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division)-cum-Judicial Magistrate through Punjab and Haryana High Court by bringing out the purview of Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), Patiala.
EX-POST FACTO APPROVAL TO EXTENSION OF SERVICES OF 497 VET PHARMACISTS, 498 CLASS-IV/ SAFAI SEWAKS
To provide efficient animal health services in 582 veterinary hospitals across the State, the Cabinet also gave ex-post facto approval for continuation of the services of Service Providers — 497 Veterinary Pharmacists and 498 Class-IV or Safai Sewaks — already working on contract basis as a stop gap arrangement, for a period of one year, that is from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. This decision has been taken to ensure smooth functioning of the veterinary hospital, besides enabling dairy farmers to avail the best veterinary services for the livestock.
NEW SUB-DIVISION OFFICE IN PANCHAYAT DEPT’s TECHNICAL WING
To ensure smooth functioning of Rural Development and Panchayats Department, the Cabinet accorded green signal to establish a new Sub-Division Office in technical wing of the Department at SAS Nagar. Total six posts, including one of Sub-Divisional Officer, two of Junior Engineers, one junior draftsman, one clerk, and one post of peon, have also been created.
PSPSCL’s REVAMPED DISTRIBUTION SECTOR SCHEME GETS NOD
The Cabinet also approved the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) proposed by PSPCL to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to consumers by strengthening its distribution system. Spokesperson said that the Union Ministry of Power has launched the scheme for power distribution sector with an outlay of Rs 3,03,758 crore with an estimated gross budgetary support of Rs 97,631 crore from the Centre.