To facilitate proper housing accommodation for students, corporate professionals, senior citizens, migrant labourers and others in the state, Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved a first of its kind policy on ‘Rental Housing’.
The approval on the draft policy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development came during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. The Cabinet authorised the Chief Minister, who is also the Minister-in-Charge of Housing and Urban Development Department, to approve any amendment to the policy, if required in future, without putting the amendment before the Council of Ministers.
The policy proposes several financial and physical incentives including maximum ground coverage permissible shall be 60 percent of the plot area with maximum FAR of 1:3.0, as against the general plotted residential developments which have maximum ground coverage of 50 percent and permissible FAR of 1:1.5.
Besides, up to two percent of the availed FAR may be used for daily use shops such as canteen, ATM, grocery, pharmacy, fruit or vegetable shop, etc, as per the draft policy, which further provides that there would be no restriction on height of such buildings subject to fulfilment of fire safety, structure safety and parking norms. Other features of the policy include fixing of parking norms at the rate of one ECS per 100 square metre covered area.
The policy also provides for financial incentives, such as ClU, EDC and Permission Fee to be payable at the rate of 50 percent of the charges as applicable to residential plotted development. However, the financial incentives will not be available to projects within municipal limits.
The draft policy has been formulated in view of the fact that due to lack of proper housing accommodation in educational campuses, corporate units or call centres, business or industrial establishments etc, about 80 percent students and working professionals or migrant labourers etc have to seek accommodation outside educational campuses or work places or industrial establishments. As a result, a large number of paying guests’ facilities and old age homes etc are coming up in urban areas without proper facilities.
Similarly, due to lack of proper accommodation for migrant labourers, a number of slums have come up, which do not have even basic facilities. This not only encourages unauthorised and unplanned development but also makes the life of the residents miserable.
SIX DIRECTORATES CREATED FROM FINANCE DEPT, EXCISE AND TAXATION DEPT BIFURCATED
To bring in greater efficiencies in the functioning of the Finance Department, Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval in principle to reclassify and restructure the Department in the form of Directorates. At the same time, the cabinet also approved the bifurcation of the Excise and Taxation Commissionerates.
As per the decision, taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, six new directorates proposed to be created include Directorate of Expenditure, Directorate of Budget and Treasury and Accounts, Directorate of Human Resources Management including Coordination and the Account and Establishment Wing of all Directorates, Directorate of Performance Review and Audit, Directorate of Banking and Economic Intelligence and Directorate of lotteries and Small Savings.
Okaying the creation of six directorates from the Finance Department, the Cabinet underlined the need to restructure the Department in view of the current and future needs of the state government.
The Department, it agreed, needed well-educated and trained manpower in the fields of economics, finance, accounts and statistics, along with the domain knowledge and certain level of experience in handling the financial operations efficaciously.
Spokesperson said that each directorate will look after a homogenous or related set of works with educated, trained or experienced officials as per the nature of work allocated to respective directorates.
These directorates will be directly under the supervision and control of Principal Secretary Finance, who will be assisted by two officers in the rank of Secretary, that is Secretary (Finance) and Secretary (Expenditure).
The Cabinet also gave its nod for creation of 17 new posts in the Excise and Taxation Department, besides bifurcation of the Department into Punjab Excise and Punjab Taxation Commissionerates to ensure effective monitoring of the two most important revenue generating sources of the state.
Notably, the Excise and Taxation, which is the state’s largest revenue generating department, collected revenue of Rs 23,784 crores during 2016-17. The revenue collection for 2014-15 was Rs 21,418 crores, and Rs 22,430 crores during 2015-16.
OVER 1500 SEWA KENDRAS TO BE ClOSED DOWN
Punjab Cabinet has decided to close all but 500 of the state’s 2147 Sewa Kendras, with the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh directing the concerned department to explore the possibility of using the infrastructure of the remaining centres as Anganwadis or Panchayat Ghars.
A 180-day notice, as required, will be served to end the contract with the current service provider of the Sewa Kendras. The contract with the provider, who was charging the government Rs 220 crores annually, was for five years.
During the discussion, it was pointed that the Sewa Kendras were constructed at a cost of Rs 200 crores, with Rs 1,400 crores estimated to be spent on their operations in five years. Health Minister Brahm Mahindra described this as a “criminal waste of public money’ and called for an inquiry into the matter.
To make the Sewa Kendras project financially viable, the Cabinet has decided to shift their operations to a new model.
GOG TO BE ROll OUT IN THREE MORE DISTRICTS
Punjab Government’s much-touted ‘Guardians of Governance’ (GoG) scheme will be rolled out in three more districts of Gurdaspur, Patiala and Pathankot besides its partial roll-out in other districts of the state in the second phase.
The scheme, aimed at ensuring efficient and effective implementation of government schemes at grassroots level, was now being extended in a phased manner across the state after its successful implementation in five districts in the first phase, said an official spokesperson.
Spokesperson said that a mobile application based monitoring mechanism is fully functional to ensure its smooth working. Nearly, 2000 ‘guardians’ are proposed to be engaged at various levels under the scheme.
PUNJAB’S PROCUREMENT AGENCIES MAY USE CENTRE’S PORTAl FOR DIRECT ONlINE PURCHASE
In a significant move to boost transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to the state procurement agencies to use the Central government’s portal — Government e-Marketplace (GeM) — for direct online purchases of goods and services.
The procurement of common use goods and services by government buyers under the Central GeM, launched by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS & D), would help the State improve transparency into the system, while facilitating online procurement of common use goods and services, said the spokesperson.