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 Punjab Chief Minister reminded Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala that the farmers who were protesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meeting in Karnal when the police baton charged them belonged to Haryana and not Punjab.
A video had gone viral of the SDM shouting out instructions to policemen to use force to stop the protesting farmers. Khattar had told a press conference that the officer's "choice of words was not correct" but said, "if any action has to be taken (against the officer), it would first have to be assessed by the district administration."
Speaking at a party function in Amritsar city, Sidhu said "if he is allowed to work according to his own policy of hope and faith, he will ensure Congress rule in the state for 20 years".
Of them, 2,35,768 challans were issued to those not wearing a mask, 28,539 to those found violating social distancing norms, 1,415 for consumption of liquor, pan, gutka, etc, 1463 for holding large public gatherings or congregations and 1,460 for spitting, the data showed.
The meeting comes in wake of some "rebel" MLAs seeking time from Sonia Gandhi to press for removal of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, even as state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu is not letting up on attacks against the Chief Minister.
Aimed at better future planning and growth, keeping in tune with climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is developing the Climate Action Plan to be completed after public consultation in two months' time.
