Punjab Cabinet gives nod to new food grains labour policy
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 Aug, 2022 10:14 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 26 (IANS) The Punjab Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Friday gave nod to the new Punjab Food Grains Labour Policy, 2022 and the revised Punjab Food Grains Transportation Policy, 2022 to ensure wider competitive participation with increased transparency and, at the same time, reduce frivolous litigations.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the revised transportation policy is now in sync with the custom milling policy for procurement and milling of paddy, approved by the Cabinet a few days back.
The revised transportation policy mandates, for the first time ever, the installation of vehicle tracking systems in every vehicle used for transportation of food grains procured by the government.
The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has already initiated the process of empanelling companies, which provide vehicle-tracking systems, and making the existing Anaaj Khareed Portal compatible with these systems.
Likewise, the new labour policy aims at ensuring wider participation of labour associations by abolishing the prevailing Labour and Cartage Policy.
The existing policy, prevailing for past many decades, was perceived by many to favour participation of contractors, since it involved providing labour and transportation services by the same person.
But the new policy has completely delinked labour and transportation services, thereby providing increased opportunities to labour associations to directly participate in the tender process, which will directly increase their incomes by removing the contractor margin, the spokesperson said.
There are currently 14 major medical colleges in Ukraine in which more than 18,000 Indian students are pursuing MBBS and BDS courses. Out of these, about 1,000 have returned home while efforts are on to bring back the rest.
Modi thanked Heger for the assistance provided by Slovakia in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine, and for permitting special evacuation flights from India. He asked for Slovakia's continued assistance in the next few days with India undertaking a mission to evacuate other citizens from conflict zones.
Sidhu has urged the apex court not to punish him with a jail term in a 1988 road rage case in which he was let off with a meagre fine of Rs 1,000. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing Gurnam Singh's family, submitted that he has moved an application seeking enlargement of the scope of the notice issued.
With Ukraine closing its airspace after Russia launched a military operation in the country on Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Kiev has asked the Indian nationals to start moving towards the bordering areas so that they can be evacuated safely.
The Indian Embassy in Kiev stated that the helpline numbers are being set up at the respective check-points to facilitate evacuation through the borders. These control rooms will be based in Poland, Romania and Hungary and they will be managed by the Indian officials posted in those countries.
On Thursday, India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had stated that Jaishankar has spoken to concerned officials in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia for setting up camps on the border areas for evacuation of stranded Indian nationals.
