By Punjabnewswire4u
CHANDIGARH,
MAY 28
In a bid
to increase the revenue of the state, the Punjab Cabinet today gave nod to
commence On-line Lottery system which would be organized, conducted, operated
and regulated as per the provisions of the Lottery Regulation Act, 1998 and
Punjab State Lotteries Rules, 1998.
A
decision to this effect was taken in a Cabinet meeting Chaired by Punjab Chief
Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal here at CMO this morning.
Disclosing
this here today a spokesperson of the CMO said that the On-line lottery system
was envisaged to offer lottery games played through a network of computer
terminals or such other devices as may be approved by the government, installed
at retail locations, with the terminals connected to a main data center at a
central headquarter. For this purpose, the government would appoint a
Distributor/selling agent who would inter-alia design and procure, install and
commission, operate and maintain, promote & market and carry out other
activities to be required for setting up and managing the On-line
lottery. The selection of the distributor/selling agent would be done
through Tenders and Monitoring Committee.
The Cabinet
reviewed the situation of availability of sand and construction material and in
order to expedite the auction of more mines and increase the availability of
sand, gravel (bajri) etc., gave go ahead for amendments of rules, auction
procedure, lease policy and policy guidelines for stone crushers to enable a
level playing field to all the stake holders in the infrastructure/construction
projects. As a price regulatory measure, the Cabinet also decided
that some mines would be operated by the industry department so that the
material was made available at affordable rates. The Cabinet also
constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary which would
regularly monitor the situations in this regard.
The
Cabinet also approved the amendment in the existing policy regarding purchase
of the land for compensatory afforestation due to non availability of degraded
forest land in the state. As per the amendment every user agency which
required forest land should provide equivalent non-forest land or pay its cost
to the Forest department. Funds, thus generated would be utilized
for the purchase non-forest land by the department for carrying out
afforestation. The policy exempts all the Government sector cases and certain
roads to be constructed on BoT basis besides the land owners of the Punjab Land
Preservation Act, 1900 areas from the condition of the payment of cost of
equivalent non-forest land. The department had already transferred
50% of the funds nearly Rs.32 crore along with interest received thereof to the
greening Punjab Mission Fund.
The
Cabinet also decided to amend the Punjab Act and Pepsu Act enabling NRIs to get
their all ancestral or five years old properties vacated expeditiously.
Earlier, they could get only one property vacated.
The
Cabinet approved the revival and filling up of 175 vacant posts of different
teaching and non teaching staff in the Industrial Training Department besides
the creation of 30 regular and 25 outsourced posts for setting up of instructor
training wing with the assistance from World Bank at Govt. Industrial Training
Institute, Lalru. This decision would help the state to build
capacity for skill development and start apprenticeship training in Micro,
Small and Medium entrepreneurship besides providing quality training and
gainful employment to the youth of the state.
In order
to give impetus to horticulture sector in the state, the Cabinet also allowed
the Horticulture department to recruit 45 Horticulture Development Officers
(HDOs) besides creating five new posts each of HDOs Entomology & Pathology
and three HDOs (Soils) to provide adequate and effective services to
Horticulturists in five Citrus Estates set up at Abohar, Tahliwala, Badal,
Hoshiarpur and Bhunga. The Cabinet also gave permission for the
up-gradation of six HDOs as Assistant Director Horticulture.
The
Cabinet also gave approval to grant extension in the contract of
Health/Veterinary Pharmacist and Sweepers working as service providers @
Rs.7000 and Rs.3000 per month respectively in 1186 subsidiary health centers
and 582 veterinary hospitals under Zila Parishads w.e.f. June 1, 2013 to
November 30, 2013 in the public interest as a stop gap arrangement up to November 30, 2013 or till regular recruitment, whichever is earlier.
In a bid
to boost the livestock sector and promote dairy farming as a push towards
diversification of agriculture, the Cabinet approved the revival of 115 posts
of Veterinary Officer and 175 Veterinary Inspectors so as to provide the best
veterinary care services to the dairy farmers.
The
Cabinet also gave go ahead to amend the rule 215, 218, 219, 220, 222, 225, 227,
229, 231, 233, 234, 235 along with forms of the Punjab Motor Vehicles, Rules,
1989 regarding Motor accidents claims tribunal rules. The implementation
of this scheme would ensure prompt release of financial benefits to the family
members of the victims.
The
Cabinet also approved to provide 214 posts of various levels for running three
Drug De-addiction Centers at Amritsar, Patiala and Jalandhar effectively and in
a result-oriented manner to wean away the youth from the menace of drug
addiction.
The
Council of Ministers also decided to contribute 10% of their discretionary
funds placed at their disposal towards the creation of corpus fund for the
construction of Jang-E-Azadi Memorial. An amount to the tune of
Rs.2,87,50,000/- has been sent directly to the foundation instead of Cultural
Affairs department for the establishment of ‘Jang-E-Azadi’ Memorial. It may be
recalled that the Cabinet in its meeting held on October 23, 2012 had decided
that each Cabinet Minister and Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) would
annually contribute Rs.10 lakh and Rs.7.50 lakh respectively out of their
discretionary funds.
The
Cabinet also gave approval to revive 16 posts in the office of Lokpal Punjab to
ensure its effective and smooth functioning.
The
Cabinet also gave ex-post facto approval in respect of the amendment in the
Punjab Lokpal Act, 1996 (Second Amendment) Act, 2013 to bring the Chairman and
the Vice Chairman of the Zila Prishad and its officials; Mayor, Senior Deputy
Mayor, Deputy Mayor of a Municipal Corporation and its official besides the
President and Vice President of a Municipal Council or Nagar Panchayat and its
officials under the jurisdiction of Lokpal Act. This decision would
enable the Lokpal to look into the complaints of corruption and mal
administration against the functionaries of local bodies (both elected and
officials).
The
Cabinet also approved the draft bill for the enactment of Punjab Horse Race
(Regulation & Management) Act, 2013 to provide for setting up, management
and operation of race courses, betting activities and intermediaries involved
and also for licensing, regulation, control and management of horse races on
race courses, maintaining and keeping of horses at race courses, exhibition of
horses and other processes of horse race and all matter connected therewith and
incidental thereto etc.
The
Cabinet also approved the exemption of fee charged for the registered mortgage
deed in the larger public interest. Likewise the Cabinet also approved
the loan of Rs.1500 crore raised by PUDA against OUVGL properties. The
decision is aimed at triggering the tempo of growth and development in the
state.
With a
view to ensuring the best health care and diagnostic facilities to the people
across the state, the Cabinet also cleared the proposal of Medical Education
& Research Department to fill 129 posts of super specialists and medical
teaching faculty in Medical Colleges of Amritsar and Patiala. Of these 80
super specialists would be recruited in the departments of Oncology, Surgical
Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, Radio Therapy, Radiology and Immuno-Haematology
& Blood Transfusion of Govt. Medical College Amritsar and Patiala to
effectively combat the deadly menace of Cancer so that these posts were filled
up quickly. These recruitments would be made by the Departmental
Selection Committee on merit after taking out these posts from the preview of
Punjab Public Service Commission. Apart from this the Cabinet gave green
signal to recruit 49 medical teaching faculty including 12 professors, 19
assistant professors, 13 senior lecturers and 5 lecturers in these medical
colleges through direct recruitment on merit through the same committee after
taking them out of the purview of the PPSC.
To
perpetuate our rich legacy and glorious cultural heritage amongst the future
generations, the Cabinet also approved to transfer the land and building of
Wood Seasoning Plant Kartarpur in Jalandhar district to the Cultural Affairs
Department for setting up of the memorial of Swami Virjanand.
The
Cabinet also okayed amendment in the Punjab Privately Managed Recognized School
Employees (Security of Service) Act, 1979 so as to include Non-aided posts of
Employees under its ambit. This would on one hand empower the Educational
Tribunal to settle the disputes between the management and employees of these
institutions and facilitate the government by mitigating the mounting
litigation by such teachers against their management, on the other.
In order
to generate funds for the state government, the Cabinet also gave green signal
to bring an ordinance to impose 2% stamp duty on Power of Attorney by amending
Schedule 1A of the Indian Stamp Act.
The
Cabinet also gave nod to return the land of freedom fighters, confiscated by
the British Authorities during the freedom struggle, to their kin.
The
Cabinet also approved to appoint 512 Hindi teachers on contract at a
consolidated pay of Rs 10,300 from April 2012 in the larger public interest.
These teachers were recruited under Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Financial
Assistance for appointment of Teachers in Non Hindi states’, which was
discontinued by the GoI at the end of 9th Five Year Plan.
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