Eyeing polls, Punjab to regularise services of 36,000 employees
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Nov, 2021 11:28 AM
Chandigarh, Nov 9 (IANS) In a major decision to regularise the services of nearly 36,000 employees ahead of the Assembly elections, the Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill, 2021 to be introduced in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha session for enactment.
This decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Charanjit Channi here.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said with this decision the services of nearly 36,000 employees with more than 10 years of service would be regularised.
Likewise, the Cabinet also gave approval for the extra creation of deemed posts.
The provisions of reservation policy would be followed during the regularisation process of these employees. However, this decision of regularisation would not be a binding on the boards and corporations, the spokesperson added.
Keeping in view the fears owing to the strict provisions incorporated in the Punjab Contract Farming Act like imprisonment, monetary penalties and other rigorous punishments, the Cabinet decided to repeal the Act in the larger interest of the farmers.
It also gave approval to amend Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act of 1961 to revoke the anti-farmer provisions.
The time-tested Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act is a legislative measure enacted by the state government to facilitate the development of market infrastructure, to provide better facilities and amenities to farmers to sell their agricultural produce, besides to regulate the marketing of agricultural produce for the elimination of malpractices prevalent in the trade.
The ex-CM of Punjab recalled that Rawat himself had publicly stated after meeting him that he was satisfied by his government's track record on the 2017 poll promises.
It is learnt that Channi in his first meeting with the Prime Minister after becoming chief minister of Punjab requested that the Centre take back its decision to postpone paddy procurement by 10 days. The Centre has postponed the procurement of paddy by 10 days due to rain in Punjab and Haryana. Earlier the procurement was supposed to start from October 1 but now it will start from October 11.
Scotching speculation to the contrary, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday made it clear he was not joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but had no intention of continuing in the Congress either, which he said was going downhill with senior leaders completely ignored and not given a voice.
The meeting lasted for over two hours and the issues raised by Sidhu will be put before the Cabinet on October 4, sources in the party said.After the meeting at Punjab Bhavan, where AICC observer Harish Chaudhary was also present, both Channi and Sidhu left the meeting venue without talking to the media.
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What everyone believes at Ekal Vidyalaya is that “change is possible and education can be the medium to bring the change in the life of the last man in the last row in the remotest parts of India.”
