Punjab Cabinet okays 665 posts of teaching faculty in Amritsar and Patiala government medical colleges and hospitals

Chandigarh, October 21, 2013: In a bid to rationalise and regulate the fee structure in the unaided educational institutions across the state, the Punjab Cabinet today approved to establish a regulatory body to keep a check on these institutions.
A decision to this effect was taken in the meeting of Council of Ministers chaired by the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Chief Minister's Office this morning.
Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that this decision has been taken in compliance with the directions of Punjab & Haryana High Court and would consequently prevent these private institutions from charging excessive fees from the students arbitrarily.
In another significant decision aimed at imparting quality education to the medical students and providing the best health care and diagnostic facilities to the people, the Cabinet decided to create 665 posts of the teaching faculty in the Government Medical Colleges of Patiala and Amritsar and the Hospitals associated with them. The Cabinet also gave nod to enhance the number of posts of Medical Teachers along with creation of new posts of various cadres in these institutions. This decision would also take care of future enhancements of the seats in medical colleges. These newly created posts would be filled within next three years in order to give boost to the medical education and research.
With a view to imbibe professional temper in the functioning of Central Cooperative Banks, the Cabinet also gave nod to replace the Ordinance with a bill for amending section 26 (2) (a) of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act 1961 in the coming session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, thereby paving a way for the appointment of Managing Directors of the Central Cooperatives Banks from amongst the experts of the banking sector. It may be recalled the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now laid down a stringent procedure for functioning of the Central Cooperative Banks and any deviance or non-compliance would adversely affect the refinance from NABARD.
In order to hasten the provisioning of drinking water, the Cabinet also approved to withdraw recruitment of 120 Junior Engineers (JEs) and 30 Junior Draftsmen from the purview of Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board and to entrust the same to the Thapar University of Technology, Patiala. The requisite staff to be recruited would be instrumental in covering all 15,170 habitations across the state with potable drinking water besides maintaining efficiency and sustainability of the rural drinking water supply schemes. The entire process of recruitment of these posts would be completed within 60 days from the date of decision of the Cabinet.
The Cabinet also gave green signal for the conversion of the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Amendment Ordinance, 2013 into bill for its enactment in the ensuing Punjab Assembly Session, so that the legal proceedings against unauthorized colonies could be suspended for a period of one year during the operation of the act. However, after the expiry of period of one year, the prosecution proceedings would continue, if the coloniser fails to get the offence compounded.
Likewise, the Cabinet also gave a go ahead to amend section 45 (3) and 66 of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995 through bringing a bill in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. To maintain uniformity and reduce litigation, this amendment would empower the Estate Officers of various Urban Development Authorities to forfeit a uniform amount of earnest money.
The Cabinet also approved to introduce a bill in the coming session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha regarding amendment in 'The Punjab Ancient, Historical Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Cultural Heritage Maintenance Board Act-2013' under section 6 (3) which stipulates, "To levy one percent cultural cess with immediate effect on building works costing more than Rs 15 crore constructed by the agencies of the state out of their own resources or the state's resources instead of Rs 50 crore as approved earlier."
The Cabinet also gave approval to replace ordinances by bills for its conversion into acts regarding the Punjab Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and Punjab Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013 in the coming session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to provide major relief to the residents of the state by reducing the rates of Property Tax and introducing the system of self-assessment.
The Cabinet also decided to convert the ordinance into a bill by amending section 17 (1) (iii) of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) Act, 1969 which empowers the PSEB to stop unauthorized Private Bodies, institutions from conducting Schools Education examination and issuing certificates to the students. By indulging in such malpractices, they were spoiling the career of students as those unauthorised certificate were not being recognized by the Government or any other Institutions. Henceforth, all such actions would be done only by PSEB, CBSE and ICSE.
To overcome the shortage of staff in the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) for conducting various examinations from time to time efficaciously, the Cabinet also approved to convert the 21 temporary posts of various cadres in the Commission into the regular ones.  
In a view to enabling the administrators to perform their duties/work of the Market committees in an effective manner, the Cabinet also approved the enhancement of the supersession period of the Market committees for another year till November 20, 2014. Pertinently the nominated Market committees were superseded by the Administrators through an amendment in "The Punjab Agricultural Produce Market Committees Act- 1961" with effect from November 21, 2012.
The Cabinet also gave approval for amending various provisions of Punjab VAT Act, 2005 making it far more dealer/trader friendly. The path breaking steps to ensure rationalisation of VAT included option to levy VAT on MRP at first stage, transport vehicles carrying tax evaded goods to be fined, assessment period to be enhanced from three to six years by amending section 29, sub section 4, Input Tax Credit (ITC) to be allowed only on sold/used goods besides ensuring ITC never to be more than the tax paid by all sellers to the end sellers. Likewise, provision to purchase under invoiced goods at 10% higher price than the invoiced price, enabling provision in VAT for giving incentives and retention of VAT, empowering levy of penalty on owners of godown if such receipt of goods was not reported earlier and enabling provision to reopen such cases which were rejected being time bound as the assessment was made within extended period had also been incorporated in these amended provisions. Similarly, the Cabinet also decided to remove bottlenecks/difficulties in the implementation of newly introduced advance tax by exempting exporters of manufacture goods out of imported raw material and abolishing section 13 (1-A) which treats advance tax as ITC whereas it should not be so.
The Cabinet also approved to introduce a bill in the ensuing session of the state assembly to replace the "Punjab Mechanical Vehicles (Bridges and Roads Tolls) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 to ensure that best Industry practices being followed by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government  of India and other state governments were followed in state besides rationalising the existing toll charges to further improve/ add some definitions and amend a certain existing ones so as to avoid any complication/misinterpretations for ensuring effective and smooth implementation of road projects on BOT basis.
In order to overcome the problems faced by the Punjab Civil Secretariat Administration due to the shortage of drivers, the Cabinet also approved to revive 15 posts of drivers.  
At the very onset of the meeting, the Cabinet deeply mourned the sad demise of ex-BJP MLA from Ludhiana Harish Bedi and observed two minutes silence in his fond remembrance thereby praying to the Almighty to grant eternal peace to the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family members to bear this irreplaceable loss. www.cityairnews.com