To fulfill its promise of providing one lakh government jobs to the state’s youth in the remaining term of the Government, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved a ‘State Employment Plan 2020-22’ to fill vacant jobs in government departments, boards, corporations, and agencies in a phased time-bound manner.
The recruitment will be done on the Central Government pay scales, in line with the earlier Cabinet decision to this effect.
A state-level function will be held on Independence Day, 2021, for formal joining of the selected candidates in government posts during the year 2020-21. The function will be presided over by the Chief Minster Capt Amarinder Singh.
As per the Plan approved by the Cabinet, all departments may advertise their respective vacancies by October 31, 2020, to take forward the process of recruitment. The Administrative Departments would be solely responsible to ensure transparent and fair recruitment within the stipulated time schedule.
The official spokesperson said that the Cabinet has also authorized the Chief Minister to make such amendments, additions or deletions as the situation may warrant, concerning various issues or proposals, after obtaining the advice of Departments of Personnel and Finance.
The Chief Minister had, in March, announced that 50,000 direct quota vacant government posts shall be filled in 2020-21 financial year, and another 50,000 posts in fiscal 2021-22, as a part of his flagship programme ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’.
Spokesperson said that the Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training Department has collected the direct quota fill-able vacant posts, category-wise, from all the Administrative Departments including 3959 Group A posts, 8717 Group B, and 36313 Group C, thus totaling 48,989 posts.
It was decided at the Cabinet meeting that interviews would not be required for recruitment to Group-C posts. However, candidates selected based on tests shall present themselves for counselling, to be organized by the concerned department for physical verification of the candidates and their documents.
Meanwhile, the Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training Department would collect fillable direct quota vacancies for the financial year 2021-22 from all the departments category wise by June 30, 2021.
Spokesperson further said that all the concerned departments whose vacancies are to be filled for the financial year 2021-22 would complete the process of advertisement regarding recruitment by October 31, 2021, and submit a certificate to this effect to the Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training Department on October 31, 2021.
PUNJAB APPROVES SC POST MATRIC SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME
To facilitate the scheduled caste students to pursue higher education in government and private institutions, Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the decks for the State Government to launch its own SC Post Matric Scholarship Scheme in place of the Centre’s “defunct” scheme. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh also announced increase in income criteria from earlier Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs four lakh to accommodate more students under the new scheme — Dr BR Ambedkar SC Post Matric Scholarship Scheme — approved by the Cabinet.
The scheme, to be effective from 2021-22 academic session, will be applicable to persons belonging to SC category, who are domiciled in Punjab and have done matriculation from Punjab (including Chandigarh). All Central or State Government and private institutions in Punjab (including Chandigarh) will be covered under the scheme.
The total financial implication of the proposal is estimated to be about Rs 600 crore. Of this, the tentative liability of the Government institutions would be about Rs 168 crore and the remaining Rs 432 crore would be borne by the private educational institutions and the Government.
Since the revised scheme envisages reimbursement of 60 percent to the private institutions by the State, the liability of the Government on this account would be 60 percent of Rs 432 crore, that is about Rs 260 crore.
Spokesperson said that the scheme will come as a relief to hundreds of thousands of SC students who were deprived of the opportunity to pursue higher learning after the Central Government suddenly withdrew from its Post Matric Scholarship Scheme in 2018, when it made several amendments to pass the financial burden to the State Government. Since then, the State Government has not been able to avail any grants under the Centre’s scheme.
As per the revised income criteria, the combined income of both parents for a student to avail assistance under the new scheme has been enhanced from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs four lakh, said an official spokesperson adding that there shall be no burden of course fee on SC students, who shall be provided cashless free education.
The remaining terms and conditions of the scheme shall remain as earlier under the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme of 2018 of the Government of India.
Notably, the population of SC community in Punjab is 31.94 percent and persons in this category are both economically and socially backward.
PUNJAB GOVT TO RE-VERIFY LEFT OUT OR DELETED BENEFICIARIES FROM SMART RATION CARD SCHEME
In a major pro-poor initiative, the Punjab Government has decided to undertake a massive exercise to re-verify all the recently deleted and left-out beneficiaries under the Smart Ration Card scheme to ensure that all genuine eligible persons get the benefit of the scheme.
Those of the 9,48,9801 beneficiaries (approximately 2,37,200 families) found by the re-verification process to have been “wrongly deleted or wrongfully left out” earlier will be included in the list again, as per the decision taken today by the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday.
The initiative would help ensure proper food security to all deprived persons (if found eligible) under the state-sponsored Smart Ration Card Scheme, said an official spokesperson.
The Cabinet also decided that after the re-verification process is completed, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution will be approached to allow Punjab to enroll all beneficiaries (found eligible in the process) under NFSA-2013, on Ration Card Managment System (RCMS) portal. However, the state will make claims of subsidy (distributed quantity) from the Centre only.
33% RESERVATION TO WOMEN UNDER DIRECT RECRUITMENT IN STATE CIVIL SERVICES
Empowering the ‘weaker sex’, Punjab Government took a significant decision by opting for 33 percent reservation for women at the direct recruitment state in the Punjab Civil Services.
The state cabinet approved the Punjab Civil Services (Reservation of Posts for Women) Rules, 2020, to provide such reservation for women for direct recruitment to posts in Government, as well as recruitment to Boards and Corporations in Group A, B, C and D posts.
RETIRING DOCTORS, MEDICAL SPECIALISTS GET 3-MONTH EXTENSION, RE-EMPLOYMENT
Cabinet gave its nod to grant a three months extension or re-employment to doctors and medical specialists, with effect from October 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, in view of the COVID crisis.
The decision comes amid continued escalation in COVID-19 cases in Punjab, which currently accounts for more than 1.25 lakh of India’s nearly 72 lakh cases, with infections and deaths continuing to rise on a daily basis.
Though recruitment of doctors and para-medical staff is under way, this would take time and hence the State Government has decided to continue availing the services of existing doctors/specialists for the time being.
MINING BLOCK CONTRACTS TO BE AMENDED
To ensure regular de-silting of major rivers and reduce flood intensity in Punjab, the Government has decided to make such de-silting part of the contracts allotted for mining blocks.
The necessary amendments to the contracts were approved by the state Cabinet, said the spokesperson adding that such de-silting would lead to enhancement of carrying capacity of rivers, and will also ensure economical sand and gravel availability without any adverse environmental impact. The major rivers, where de-silting will be carried out as part of the amended contracts, are Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, besides seasonal rivulets Ghaggar and Chakki.
DRAINAGE WING TO ALLOT 78 SITES IN 7 BLOCKS TO CONTRACTORS
The Cabinet today also gave the go-ahead to the Drainage Wing of Water Resources Department to allot 78 sites in seven blocks, having a total area of 651.02 hectares with 274.22 LMT quantity of sand or gravel, to mining contractors. Block-I includes Ropar district, Block-II SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr), Jalandhar, Barnala, Sangrur, Mansa, Block-III Moga, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Fazilka, Bathinda, Faridkot, Block-IV Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Block-V Kapurthala.
Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Block-VI Pathankot, and Block-VII Mohali, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib. The Cabinet also decided that in future, more river bed stretches that need de-silting would be offered to mining contractors in a similar manner, keeping concession quantity as per the contracts.