The political temperature of Punjab has warmed up with the Winter Session of State Assembly scheduled to commence from December 22. The decision to summon the Session of the Assembly was taken at the Cabinet meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday.
In its meeting, the Cabinet also decided to waive off the water user charges on tube wells run by Punjab Water Resources Management and Development Corporation (PWRMDC) at the rate of Rs 1 per unit for Kandi (sub mountainous) area and Rs 1.60 per unit electricity consumed for other areas, a spokesman of the State Government said. It also decided to waive off the arrears amounting to Rs 6.50 crore recoverable from the shareholders of these tube wells.
The State Government had levied the charges for water supplied through tube wells run by the erstwhile Punjab State Tube well Corporation now PWRMDC at the rate of Rs 1 per unit of Kandi area and Rs 1.60 per unit electricity consumed for other areas in May 2003.
The Cabinet approved to convert the ordinance regarding the levying of water cess at the rate of Rs 50 per acre per crop by amending the Indian Canal and Drainage Act, 1873, into Bill for presenting in the forthcoming session of the state Assembly. “The water cess thus collected would be utilised for maintenance, upkeep and modernisation of the canals,” the spokesman said.
Besides, the State Government will engage the services of ‘Online Social Media Agency’ for “effective dissemination” of state government’s policies and programmes, the Cabinet decided. Meanwhile, the government decided to grant financial assistance as livelihood to the victims of botched eye surgeries recently in an eye camp organised by an NGO.
“It was decided to amend Financial Assistance to Disabled Person Rules 1996 to pay special pension of Rs 2,000 per month to victims, who lost their vision, during the Eye Operation camps organised in Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts,” the spokesman said.
Punjab Govt to set up sports institute
Punjab Government will set up a State Institute of Sports, headquartered at Mohali near here. A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting. “The objective to set up a sports institute is to create a large pool of sportspersons, who could be groomed as prospective medalists of Olympics, Commonwealth, Asian games and other national and international sports competitions,” an official spokesman said.
These potentially talented athletes would be trained by renowned domestic and foreign coaches and would be provided nutritious diets besides accommodation in ultra modern hostels and foreign training and competition exposure. The headquarters of this institution would be at SAS Nagar (Mohali) and centers of excellence in selective sports discipline would also be established under it.
Judicial Commission Bill
The Cabinet gave approval for ratifying the amendment of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty First Amendment) Bill, 2014 and National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 as passed by both the houses of Parliament. Certain amendments to the constitution required ratification by half of the states of the country. The National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2014 was passed by the lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on August 13 and 14 respectively. The Cabinet approved the proposal of the state Home Affairs and Justice Department before laying down the same on the table of Punjab Vidhan Sabha for its assent.
New appointees to be paid only basic salary
Approval was given by the Cabinet for changing the service conditions under the Punjab Civil Services Rules whereby during the probation period for two years, the new appointee would be paid only the basic pay. After the successful completion of probation period, full salary would be admissible to the employees. However, these conditions would not be applicable in case of PCS (Judicial).