Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh
The Congress government will present the state budget for 2020-21 on February 25, during the Budget session that will be held from February 20-28.
The decision to summon the 11th session of the 15th Punjab Vidhan Sabha was taken during a Cabinet meeting held here on Friday.
As per the schedule, the session would commence on February 20 at 11 am with obituary references, followed by the presentation of a Bill regarding Punjabi language at 12 noon.
On February 24, the motion of thanks and discussion on Governor’s address would take place at 11 am, which will be resumed in the afternoon at 2 after a lunch break till the conclusion of the same.The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for 2018-19 (civil and commercial), financial accounts of the state government for 2018-19, and appropriation accounts for 2018-19 would be tabled in the House on February 25 at 10 am.
Supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20, appropriation bill on supplementary demands for grants for 2019-20, and Budget estimates for 2020-21 would be presented before the House on February 25. General discussion on the Budget estimates would resume at 10 am on February 26 till its conclusion.
Non-official business would be conducted at 10 am on February 27, followed by discussion and voting on demands regarding Budget estimates for 2020-21, appropriation Bill in respect of Budget estimates for 2020-21 and legislative business. The house would be then adjourned sine die.
Meanwhile, in compliance with the observations made by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Cabinet on Friday decided to give preference while giving reservation to ex-servicemen, wards of ex-servicemen and grandchildren of gallantry award winners according to the widely prevalent lineal hierarchy principle.
Accepting the proposal mooted by the Department of Defence Services Welfare, the Cabinet gave its nod to amend Proviso 3 of Rule 4 of the Punjab Recruitment of Ex-Servicemen Rules, 1982.The amended proviso envisages that when an ex-serviceman is not available for recruitment against a reserved vacancy, and neither does his wife nor his dependent child, the vacant post shall be reserved for the grandchild of a gallantry award winner.
This will, however, only apply in case the benefit of reservation has not been availed of by any of the children or dependents of gallantry award winner or the winner himself, subject to the conditions specified in the second proviso.
The state government has already decided to give benefit of reservation to grandchildren of gallantry award winners.
The Council of Ministers, meanwhile, approved a job to the next of kin of Major Ravi Inder Singh Sandhu of the Indian Armed Forces in recognition of his outstanding services. Major Sandhu had died while serving in the United Nations mission in Sudan. The Cabinet also decided to extend to the next of kin benefits equivalent to those permitted under the policy of “Appointment of Honour and Gratitude”.
683 obsolete posts scrapped
To streamline the functioning of the Industries and Commerce Department, the Cabinet on Friday decided to restructure it by creating 38 new posts, scrapping 683 old ones that were either obsolete or non-essential and had been lying vacant for long
The department had 1,644 sanctioned posts, of which 650 were lying vacant. Its wing, the Controller of Stores, had 84 sanctioned posts, of which 33 were lying vacant for long. With old posts scrapped, it will save about Rs24.9 crore annually
Nod to panchayats dept’s wing revamp
The Council of Ministers also approved restructuring of the engineering wing of the Rural Development and Panchayats Department to ensure holistic rural development across the state. Under its restructuring plan, the Cabinet gave nod to filling feeding cadre posts.
Online lottery ban
To check the sale of illegal lottery sales in the guise of online lottery, the Cabinet decided to ban the sale of all types of online lottery schemes. The ban on online lottery schemes will be implemented under Section 5 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998.
