In a one-day Punjab Vidhan Sabha session, held amidst corona pandemic with all strict Covid-19 protocols, the House on Friday passed seven Bills, including ‘The Punjab Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2020’, which seeks to bring clinical establishments under a regulatory mechanism.
Tabling the Bill, the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that as presently, there is no legislation in Punjab to register or regulate private clinical establishments, the aim of this enactment is to bring such establishments under a regulatory mechanism to further ensure transparency in their functioning.The Bill also seeks to improve quality of public healthcare, prevent overcharging from patients, and lay down staff norms, terms of physical and medical standards, and norms for record maintenance and reporting.
The assembly also passed ‘The Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020’, presented by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. “In view of the serious negative impact of the unprecedented COVID-19 situation on resources of the State Government, the Centre has decided to provide relaxation in borrowing limits by increasing an additional borrowing limit of up to two percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for 2020-2021, subject to implementation of specific state level reforms,” he said adding that Punjab has been allowed an additional borrowing of Rs 12,130 crore over and above its net borrowing ceiling of three per cent of GSDP.
The House also passed the legislation for setting up the Sri Guru Teg Bahadur University of Law at Tarn Taran to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Teg Bahadur.
‘The Sri Guru Teg Bahadur State University of Law, Punjab Bill, 2020’ was presented by Higher Education Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa “to establish and incorporate a state university for the development and advancement of legal education, for the purposes of imparting specialized and systematic instruction, training and research in the field of law and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.
During discussion on the Bill, AAP MLA Prof Baljinder Kaur reminded the Congress Government to take care of existing institutions like Punjabi University while establishing new institutions.
She also drew the attention of the House towards delay on declaration of the results of open school students by the state Education Department.
The assembly also passed the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, which according to the Finance Minister, seeks to provide changes so as to make levy and collection of taxes under the GST effective and easier for taxpayers.Debating, AAP MLA Aman Arora demanded a probe in to the GST Bill scam, being probed by the state vigilance bureau.
The House also passed ‘The Punjab Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Amendment Bill, 2020’, which was tabled by the Higher Education Minister Bajwa as the Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa is afflicted by the COVID-19.