Punjab to bring in law and order reforms: Mann

Chandigarh, June 25 (IANS) Reiterating commitment of the government to eliminate gangsters from Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday announced to introduce comprehensive law and order reforms.

Winding up the discussion on Governor's address in the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly), the Chief Minister said the government is duty bound to curb gangster activities.

He said the need of the hour is to bring comprehensive law and order reforms.

Mann said the government will soon introduce witness protection Bill and modify jails of the state into high-security jails.

The Chief Minister said the government has already set up the Anti-Gangster Task Force headed by an ADGP-rank officer. He said the task force has been directed to adopt zero tolerance towards gangsters and work without any fear and prejudice, adding the force is being equipped with advance facilities and resources for this purpose.

Mann said the Special Task Force (STF) in coordination with district police, intelligence wing and Central agencies is launching need-based operations to check cross-border smuggling of narcotics and weapons.

The Chief Minister said the corruption-free governance is at the core of the ethos of the government, which has been duly proved in its actions in the last 100 days.

He said an anti-corruption helpline was launched within the first few days of forming the government and in just a short period of time, 29 cases have been registered and 47 arrests have been made.

Mann said the government has exhibited a zero-tolerance policy against corruption by initiating an action against its own Cabinet minister.

"The walls of this House have seen so many governments but none of them has initiated action against corruption to this extent in the past," he added.

On education, the Chief Minister announced to introduce multi-pronged improvements, adding government schools will be transformed into 'Schools of Eminence'.

To ensure that students get quality and affordable education, the government is committed not only to building the state-of-art government schools, but also to regulate the fees of private schools by not allowing them to enhance their fees arbitrarily from this year.

Mann said a no-objection certificate of the schools found violating the Fee Act of 2016 would be cancelled and a fine of Rs 100,000 would be imposed.

Also the Schools are no longer allowed to force parents to buy books or uniforms from any particular shop. He said though teachers form the core of providing quality education to the children, the welfare of teachers have often been neglected by the successive governments.

Mann said the government has already started process of filing vacant posts and the recruitment of 5,994 ETT teachers and 8,393 pre-primary teachers is under process.

He said from now teachers will be deployed for core-teaching tasks and a separate cadre for non-teaching works will be created.