Punjab Ministers on Tuesday virtually gave a pat on their back for the robust health of their departments even during the COVID-19 days. Set to ring in a new year, the Ministers highlighted the “achievements” and efficient working of their departments — at a time when the State is entering the election year. The state’s assembly elections are scheduled to be held in early 2022.
PUNJAB REVAMPS MEDICAL CARE INFRASTRUCTURE IN PANDEMIC ERA: SONI
Carrying out a marvelous work to create medical care infrastructure in fight against COVID-19, the Punjab Medical Education and Research Department has ensured adequate number of 3,711 beds, including 1494 isolation beds and 374 ICU-plus-DHU beds in the state’s three Government Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar, and Faridkot, with scope for further enhancement.
More than 10,000 Covid-19 infected patients have been admitted in isolation wards and more than 8500 have recovered and have been discharged, said the state Medical Education and Research Minister Om Parkash Soni on Tuesday.
He said that the dedicated labour rooms and isolation wards for COVID-19 positive patients were established in the three Government Medical Colleges.
The Department conducted the largest survey of about 250 private hospitals, on 76 parameter scale, to identify the facilities available to manage COVID-19 situation and to allocate additional resources to them if required.
“As many as 1822 posts of Super Specialist and specialist doctors, nurses and other paramedics were sanctioned by the State Government specifically for management of COVID-19 pandemic. An expert group regularly meets to monitor the adequacy of tertiary care in the State. Seven labs with capacity of 26,500 tests per day were established in the state for RT-PCR testing to rapid up testing. Total 27,34,826 tests have been done so far,” he said.
Soni said that three Plasma Banks have also been established at GMCs of Patiala, Amritsar, and Faridkot. “A total of 158 units of plasma has been collected throughout Punjab with the help of GMCs. Plasma is provided free of cost by private hospitals and OPDs remained functional throughout the pandemic,” he added.
DIGITALIZATION REVOLUTIONIZED FOOD AND CIVIL SUPPLIES DEPT’S FUNCTIONING: ASHU
Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Tuesday said that the Congress-led State Government’s big step forward in the direction of digitalization by introducing smart ration cards for the purpose of Public Distribution System has revolutionized the Department’s functioning.
Ashu said that during 2017, the Congress Government had promised the people of the State to make smart cards for the grain distribution system and digitization of this Public Distribution System. “This promise has now been fulfilled. The new system will enable the beneficiaries to get direct benefit, and the Department will also be able to distribute ration to the needy in a hassle-free manner,” he added.
He said that under this scheme, 1.41 crore people of 37 lakh families of the State will get direct benefit. “Apart from this, the State-sponsored scheme has been started by the Punjab Government for the families of the State which could not come under the Smart Ration Card Scheme, under which 9,48,801 members of 2,37,200 families (four members of each family) of the State will get benefit of the scheme,” he added.
“The Congress Government, after assuming power in 2017, started a pilot project in some districts to distribute wheat through biometric medium by e-POS machine. This led to the distribution of wheat with complete transparency under the scheme. Similarly, from 2018 till now, wheat is being distributed all over the State through online e-POS machines, thereby eliminating any diversion and the benefit of this welfare scheme to only qualified beneficiaries,” he added.
‘DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN TRANSPORT SECTOR ENSURED HASSLE FREE DELIVERY OF KEY SERVICES’
The Punjab Government on Tuesday said that the year 2020 will be remembered as the “year of digital transformation in Punjab’s Transport Department” despite facing enormous challenges amid COVID-19 crisis.
“Now, the people can get the key services through online system as the department has digitized these public services….Under the Government’s digital initiative, the applicants can not only submit their documents online for digital driving licenses, but the State has also abolished the condition of NOC for transfer of personal vehicles,” said the Department’s spokesperson.
In another major step towards hassle-free services, the Transport Department has also started e-auction facility for the general public to get the fancy number of their vehicles.
Spokesperson said that the Department was providing digital licenses to new applicants while those who had old licenses (manual driving licenses) can also upgrade their documents to digital ones.
“Earlier, the applicants had to visit concerned registering authorities several times to submit all requisite documents for getting driving licenses. But now, there would be no harassment with simplification of the process. The applicants can apply for driving licenses through website www.punjabtransport.org,” added the spokesperson.
In another significant step, the Department has rolled out consumer friendly e-auction policy for getting reserved numbers (fancy numbers). “Under this policy, the people need not visit the office of concerned registering authority and can join the process for fancy numbers online. The e-auction is being run through web application ‘VAHAN 4.0’,” said the spokesperson adding that the applicant would have to deposit a non-refundable fee of Rs 1,000 to join the e-auction.
The entire process is being conducted in a transparent manner and results of auction upload on VAHAN 4.0 web portal besides apprising the successful applicants through SMS or email.
GOVT TRANSFORMED SCHOOL EDUCATION BY DISTRIBUTING SMART PHONES, FREE EDUCATION, FILLING VACANCIES, BUILDING SMART SCHOOLS
Punjab Government claimed to have transformed the school education in the State during current year by taking the decisions to distribute smartphones to the students, to provide free education to all the students from pre-primary to XII, to make great strides towards building smart schools, filling vacancies of about 15,000 teachers, and to improve the school infrastructure.
The Department has launched a campaign to provide free smart phones to 1.74 lakh students studying in Class XII in government schools, and at the same time, a revolutionary decision has been taken to provide free education to all students from pre-primary to Class XII, said the Department’s spokesperson.
“The process has been started to fill the vacancies of 8393 teachers for pre-primary education during the current year. The posts of 154 Principals, 672 Head Teachers, 38 Block Primary Education Officers, 375 Centre Head Teachers and 1558 Head Teachers have been filled. Simultaneously, recruitment process of 3704 posts of Master Cadre, 2364 posts of ETT Cadre and recruitment of 173 Principals, 337 Headmasters and 75 Block Primary Education Officers has been started through direct recruitment,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said that the Department has also made great strides in increasing enrolment in government schools and also achieved marvelous results this year.
“As many as 3.30 lakh children have been enrolled in pre-primary classes in government schools across the State, which is 14.08 percent high this time. Government schools also performed brilliantly with 96.95 percent pass percentage in Class XII results for March 2020,” added the spokesperson.
The Department has also introduced a new subject ‘Welcome Life’ to develop moral values in students from pre-primary to Class XII. At the same time, steps have been taken to enhance the English language skills of the students.
During lockdown due to COVID-19, the 'Educare App' was also launched to provide online education to the students of government schools and to keep them constantly connected with the curriculum. The teachers have been teaching the students regularly during Corona time by setting up online video and audio classrooms under the 'Home Sitting Education' program.
For the first time under the direction of Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla, the Education Department conducted a “Punjab Achievement Survey” to assess the learning outcomes of the students.
Besides, 6832 smart schools have been set up in the state and Rs 341.17 crore has been spent for the construction of 4543 new classrooms in government schools. The projectors and tablets have also been provided to schools in the state, said the spokesperson, adding that new computer labs have also been set up in 613 schools and 3048 new toilets have been constructed in government schools.
PUNJAB DISBURSES Rs 39 CR TO 19,082 EWS GIRLS UNDER ASHIRWAD, LAUNCHES NEW SC POST MATRIC SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME: DHARAMSOT
Under the Ashirwad Scheme, the Punjab Government has disbursed Rs 39 crore to 19,082 girls of the economically weaker families at the time of their wedding.
“During 2020, as many as 10,873 girls belonging to the Scheduled Castes have been given the benefit to the tune of Rs 22 crore under Ashirwad Scheme while Rs 17 crore was disbursed to 8,209 girls from Backward Classes and economically weaker families at the time of their wedding,” said the state Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on Tuesday.
The Minister pointed out that the Punjab Government also notified its own new Dr BR Ambedkar SC Post Matric Scholarship Scheme on October 27, 2020, which had been applicable from the academic session 2020-21. “The benefit of this scheme would be given to those SC candidates, who passed matriculation from Punjab State and Chandigarh,” he said.
Under this scheme, the income limit (both of mother-father) had been enhanced from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs four lakh. The ambit of benefit under the scheme had also been expanded to Central and State level institutes of higher education of Punjab and Chandigarh.
Dharamsot said that Rs 309.21 crore had been received to clear the backlog of 2016-17 under the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, discontinued by the Union Government. The distribution of this amount was under progress, which would be accomplished soon.
He added that the SC Land Development and Finance Corporation had given loans worth Rs 5.59 crore to 417 beneficiaries along with subsidies under self employment schemes.
Likewise, the Backward Classes Land Development and Finance Corporation provided Rs 3.91 crore to 228 beneficiaries under self employment schemes.
The Minister said that the State Government was running three schemes in collaboration with the Union Government to extend benefit to students of minorities — including pre-matric scholarship scheme, post-matric scholarship scheme and merit-cum-means based scholarship.
“During 2020, benefit to the tune of Rs 76.14 crore were extended to 4,68,622 under pre-matric scholarship scheme while under post matric scholarship scheme 56,664 students got benefit of Rs 30.18 crore whereas under merit-cum-means based scholarship scheme, as many as 2,404 students received scholarships worth Rs 6.45 crore throught DBT mode,” he said.