CABINET OKAYS POLICY FOR REGULARISATION OF UNAUTHORISED COLONIES & PLOTS/BUILDINGS DEVELOPED BEFORE MARCH 19, 2018

Chandigarh, October 3, 2018: In a bid to check the mushrooming growth of unplanned and haphazard constructions across the state, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday okayed a policy for regularization of unauthorized colonies etc. developed before March 19, 2018. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh here this morning. The move will give an opportunity for regularisation to colonisers/residents who have failed to apply for either getting their unauthorized colonies regularized or un-authorized plots/buildings falling in un-authorized colonies compounded under previous policies, or whose application are pending. Stringent action would be taken against the colonizer of a colony, which comes up after the cut-off date March 19, 2018, and also against those who do not apply for regularization, the Cabinet decided. According to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office, this policy would enable residents living in these colonies to get facilities of basic civic amenities like water supply, sewerage, electricity and road connectivity etc. Highlighting the key features of this policy, the spokesperson said unauthorized colonies developed before March 19, 2018 shall be regularized, with regularization charges earlier paid under the previous policies to be adjusted. The charges thus received from the regularization of the particular colony would be used for providing basic infrastructure to that specific colony only and payment of charges shall be made in instalments. Besides, committees of officers shall also be constituted for quick regularization of colonies, as well as plots falling in these unauthorized colonies. Residents Welfare Association (RWA) can also submit an application for regularization of the colony. Where there is no colonizer, creation of RWA shall be mandatory. However, the area under the road/park would be transferred in the name of the local authority immediately, and subsequently would be transferred to RWA as and when formed for its maintenance. Till that time, the upkeep shall be the responsibility of the colonizer. Unauthorized colonies have been categorized into four categories viz. where upto 25% plots are sold, where 25% to 50% plots are sold, where more than 50% plots are sold and a special provision for exceptional colony having more than 75% built-up area. The colonizer would be required to submit registered sale deeds within three months from the grant of provisional regularization certificate in case sale agreements are submitted as proof of sale. No legal action shall be initiated against the colonizer who pays full charges as per demand notice. Also, no interest shall be levied on the pending payment. In another decision, the Cabinet also decided to amend Punjab Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 through Ordinance in order to simplify the process of filing returns and payment of tax with minimum paper work. Notably, Punjab Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 is replica of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment), Bill has been passed by Lok Sabha on August 9, 2018. Similar amendments have to be made in Punjab Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. PUNJAB CABINET GIVES IN-PRINCIPLE NOD TO SPORTS POLICY-2018 TO PROMOTE SPORTS & STRENGTHEN INFRASTRUCTURE In a major initiative to promote sports among youth, the Punjab Cabinet led by Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday gave in-principle approval to the new Sports Policy-2018, authorizing the Chief Minister to decide on the matter of issuing separate guidelines for recruitment under the Sports quota. Underlining the need to ‘catch them young’ to groom budding players, the Chief Minister said the state government was committed to continuing with 3% reservation in all jobs of state Government, as well as in its Boards, Corporations, Cooperative/Statutory bodies and local authorities for graded sportspersons who are residents of Punjab and have represented the state at national level. The Cabinet also decided to enhance the existing amount cash award to sportspersons in recognition of their outstanding performance at various national and international tournaments/championships. In case of Olympic/Paralympics Games, held once in four years, the existing cash award of Rs.1.01 crore has been increased to Rs.1.50 crore for Silver medalists and Rs.51 lakh to Rs.1 crore for Bronze medalists, whereas the cash award of Rs.2.25 crore for Gold medalists remains unchanged. In Asian/Para Asian Games held once in four years, the existing cash award of Rs.26 lakh has been enhanced to Rs.1 crore for Gold medal, Rs.16 lakh to Rs.75 lakh for Silver and Rs.11 lakh to Rs.50 lakh for Bronze medal. Similarly, in Official World Cup/Championship, held every four years, the existing cash prize has been increased from Rs.21 lakh to Rs.80 lakh for Gold medal, Rs.11 lakh to Rs.55 lakh for Silver and Rs.7 lakh to Rs.45 lakh for Bronze medal. In Commonwealth Games/Para Commonwealth Games, held once in four years, the sportsperson who clinches Gold medal would now get enhanced cash award of Rs. 75 lakh from the earlier Rs.16 lakh, Rs.50 lakh for Silver from existing Rs.11 lakh and Rs.40 lakh for Bronze from Rs.6 lakh. Besides, the Gold medalist in World University Games/Championships would get cash award of Rs. 7 lakh, Rs.5 lakh for Silver and Rs.3 lakh for Bronze. The cash prize money for winning Gold medal in SAF Games/Afro Asian Games and National Games/Para National Games would be Rs.5 lakh, Rs. 3 lakh for Silver and Rs.2 lakh for Bronze. In All India Inter-University Tournament/Championship, National School Games/Khelo India School Games and National Women Sports Festival/National Level Khelo India Tournament, the Gold medal winner would get cash award of Rs.50,000, Rs.30,000 for Silver and Rs.20,000 for Bronze. Similarly, the Gold medal winner would get Rs. 40,000 as cash award, Rs.20,000 for Silver and Rs.15,000 for Bronze in Senior National Championships organized by National Sports Bodies, held once a year. Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said the new policy would help involve the state's youth in sports and physical activities. Besides, it would also be instrumental in building talent and excellence of sportspersons so as to enable them to bring laurels to the state at various national and international levels while participating in different sports competitions. Pertinently, the Sports and Youth Services Department had formulated its Sports Policy in 2010. Since then lot of changes in the area of sports have taken place, necessitating change in the policy. Listing the salient features of the new sports policy, the spokesperson said the policy provides for clear vision and goals, identifiable objectives and way forward for implementation. It categorizes games into high potential games and potential games, with the objective of paying focused attention to high potential games. The policy also aims at involving young children at an early age in the sports and physical activities, and intends to start sports activities in schools, colleges and universities, besides incentivizing Universities with higher achievements. The policy also envisages the strengthening of existing Sports infrastructure and adding more such facilities at the district and sub divisional levels. In addition, it also aims to set up at least one play field in one village in each block. The policy also intends to encourage private partnership in improvement and setting up green field sports infrastructure in Punjab and for attracting NRIs in this area. For managing career in sports, the Policy provides for financial assistance to Medal winners, through Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award and Scholarship and Pension Scheme. It also provides for employment incentives to sportspersons, and aims at developing human resources in terms of coaches and departmental officials by way of financial incentives, training, reservation in admission in different colleges and universities. Besides creating a centre of excellence, the policy also purposes to set up state sports university at Patiala. Highlighting the new components of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh award, which is an expression of appreciation and gratitude of the state to the medal winners for winning laurels for the state and country, the spokesperson said that under the new policy, top 20 players and one differently abled player, who have won medal and participated in various international level tournaments and have been graded on a scale of 100 points as per the guidelines, will be selected every year. All Padma, Arjuna and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratana Awardees, who were sportspersons of Punjab, would be automatically eligible for awards in addition to the select 20 players. Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awardee shall get Rs.5 lakh as cash award with Trophy and Blazer, and would be entitled to health insurance cover of Rs.1 lakh per year for indoor treatment for five years. In addition, the state Government would also provide financial support as pension to veteran players who have won a medal at various international tournaments or championships, and have attained age of 40 years and are not employed or have an annual income of Rs. 6 lac or more per annum. This pension would be in addition to any sports pension being provided by the Central Government or any other agency except a pension as retired government employee by any government, in which case he would not be eligible for pension. The State Government would grant pension of Rs. 15,000 per month to a medal winner in Olympics, Rs. 7500 per month to a medal winner in Asian/Commonwealth games and World Games, Rs. 5,000 per month for national games medal winners, who have won at least two medals in last five national games. In order to motivate the coaches, cash award would be given to those who have trained players who win medals in Olympics, World Championships, Asian and Commonwealth Games. Such coaches, who have trained at least for one year and whose trained players win medals would be given cash award equivalent to 40% of the cash award, which the player shall be entitled to under this policy. In case of multiple players winning medals in events other than team events who have been trained by a coach, for every additional medal, the coach would be entitled to 20% of the cash award to which the additional players are entitled to. In case of team events the coach will be entitled to the same amount of cash award as a single player as team member is entitled to. CAPT AMARINDER LED CABINET GIVES NOD TO ESTABLISH 'PUNJAB GHAR GHAR ROZGAR AND KAROBAR MISSION' Giving a further fillip to the state government’s employment drive, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday gave approval to setting up the 'Punjab Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar Mission' (PGRAKM), with the Chief Minister to be the Chairman of its Governing Council. The Mission will be registered as a society under societies Registration Act, 1860, an official spokesperson said after a meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. The move is aimed at facilitating every jobseeker in securing wage or self-employment in Punjab, India or abroad. Notably, Ghar Ghar Rozgar is a flagship programme of the Punjab government, with focus on according top priority to employ youth through accelerated employment generation through various necessary measures, and to thus raise the standard of living of the people of the state. According to the spokesperson, the proposed society would focus on the creation of the necessary framework to facilitate wage and self-employment for the unemployed youth of the state, besides improving employability through skill training/skill up-gradation. It would also identify areas having the potential for employment generation and would strive to harness that potential with government intervention. Outlining the objective of this unique employment initiative, the spokesperson said the Mission would give the necessary impetus to the government’s employment thrust and facilitate job seekers for placement in government, private jobs, overseas employment and skill training as per their aptitude and skills. The Mission would also offer a platform for major job and entrepreneurship ventures, and bring employers and employees together. Greater thrust would be laid on the creation of more jobs and entrepreneurs under this Mission, which would also coordinate and monitor the work of District Bureaus of Employment & Enterprises. The Mission would also create an exhaustive data base of unemployed household in the state, besides developing and promoting an ecosystem, conducive to employment generation, amongst all stakeholders. This would help ensure at least one job or source of employment/self-employment in each household. PUNJAB CABINET GIVES IN-PRINCIPLE APPROVAL TO IMPLEMENTING PMJAY WHILE EXTENDING CENTRAL SCHEME TO 42 LAKH FAMILIES While giving in-principle approval to the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY), the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday extended the central scheme to cover over 42 lakh families, instead of the proposed 14.96 lakh SECC families, thereby fulfilling the Congress poll promise of providing universal health cover. The Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, decided to set up a committee under the Chief Secretary, to work out the financial modalities for the implementation of the scheme, to be implemented at an estimated cost of over Rs. 300 crore, by cutting the budgets of other departments, as and where necessary. While PMJAY had proposed to cover 14.96 SECC families in the state, the Captain Amarinder Singh government has decided to extend the scheme to provide Rs. 5 lakh insurance cover to 42 lakh of the total 61 lakh families in the state. These include families of farmers, construction workers and small traders, as well as the other poor families (currently covered under the Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana – BPSSBY). With another 6-7 lakh government employees already covered, only the few rich families are left out of the purview of the scheme, thus effectively reaching out to the entire population of the state. The Cabinet also authorized the Chief Minister to rename the scheme for Punjab, where the Congress, in its election manifesto, had committed itself to providing universal health insurance. Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson said the estimated cost of annual premium @ Rs.1082 per family would be shared between the Central and State Governments in the ratio of 60:40, which would cost Rs.65 crores to the state government annually, for which the Finance Department had already agreed. The Cabinet also gave concurrence to extend the period of Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana (BPSSBY), which is expiring on October 31, 2018, for the next three months or implementation of revised scheme, whichever is earlier. It may be recalled that the state has been implementing BPSSBY since 2015 for providing health insurance cover of Rs. 50,000 per family per year to about 30 lakh blue card holders and 7.90 lakh other families. PUNJAB GOVT TO REGULARISE 8886 TEACHERS RECRUITED UNDER SSA, RMSA, BESIDES ADARSH & MODEL SCHOOLS The Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the regularization of the services of 8886 teachers recruited under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), as well Adarsh and Model Schools. Approving the Cabinet Sub-committee’s recommendations in this regard, the Cabinet decided to regularize 7356 teachers recruited under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 1194 under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, along with 220 for model schools and 116 for Adarsh schools. Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson said that though the Committee had recommended that services of all the teachers/employees be regularized by absorbing them by creating these posts in the School Education Department, subject to the condition that they would be paid Rs. 10,300/- per month (initial of the regular pay scale) for three years, the cabinet decided to pay them Rs 15,000/-. On successful completion of three years, their services would be regularized by the department, strictly as per rules. The Committee also recommended that seniority of these teachers be determined from the date of regularization of their service. A period of 15 days would be given to all such teachers/employees to give their option. Inter se seniority would be maintained of all those teachers/employees by the Department. In the case of those who give options after 15 days, seniority would be fixed based on the date when such option(s) are received. No fresh recruitment of teachers would be made unless a complete rationalization of posts in the Department is carried out as per norms. An option may also be given to the teachers/employees in all the above Societies to get their services regularized by getting absorbed in the Department or continue to work in their respective societies. In case of the latter option, they will continue to draw their current salary. The Cabinet also decided that all future recruitments will be made in Government of India pay scale. The Sub-Committee, constituted on the directives of Chief Minister, comprised Education Minister OP Soni, Rural Development & Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. It may be recalled that the State Government, under the SSA and RMSA programme, has been recruiting teachers from time to time to meet the teacher student ratio. Both the programmes are being run under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes funded by Government of India and State Government in the ratio of 60:40. As many as 7356 teachers have been recruited under the SSA programme (1078 ETT and 6278 Master Cadre). Similarly, 1194 teachers including Head Masters have been recruited under RMSA. The SSA caters to schools from classes 1 to 8 and RMSA for classes 9 to 12. To avail the benefit of Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the State Government under both the programmes has been recruiting teachers by following a transparent procedure. At present, these teachers have been working in various schools, mostly upgraded under the SSA and RMSA.