Chandigarh, Oct 21 (IANS) In a major decision, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday approved restoration of the old pension scheme for the government employees.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said a decision to this effect was taken in meeting of Cabinet, with Mann in the chair, here.
The spokesperson said the employees will be given option for adopting the old pension scheme or the new pension scheme. The old pension scheme was discontinued in 2004 and ever since then the employees are being given the new pension scheme.
However, the employees have been since long demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme.
Keeping in view the well-being of the lakhs of employees, the Cabinet has decided to restore the old pension scheme, a major relief to the employees.
Realising that the employees are the backbone of the government, the state has taken this historic decision which is likely to benefit all category of the employees, the spokesperson said.
Also, the Cabinet decided to give six per cent dearness allowance (DA) to government employees and pensioners with effect from October 1.
The Council of Ministers opined that the employees were a critical segment of the state administration and safeguarding their interests was the government's top priority, the spokesperson said.
"When the officials examined a consignment declared as plastic hot fix with a value of Rs 5,000, they got suspicious. The said consignment was then opened. On examination, a packet containing pouches of cut and polished diamonds was found inside it. These diamonds were concealed very ingeniously in the packets of 'plastic hot fix'," said an official.
Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief Amarinder Singh on Friday announced his party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2022 Assembly polls in Punjab.
In a bizarre incident, a man married his own sister at a mass marriage event to obtain money from the Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivaah Yojana scheme, under which weddings are conducted by the social welfare department.
It is simply not news – although it might be if it were banned in the West, not just in India. For Canada, Britain and the US, freedom of speech is the rule and there's been no effort to silence SFJ. Although this irritates Indian authorities, Western politicians do not pay any price for tolerating speech which voters hardly notice, Milewski said.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday made a slew of historical announcements for the Christian community, including setting up of a Chair at university level for the study of the Bible. In his address here, the Chief Minister said that Christians would be given due representation in the state government boards.
The commission's team also comprises three Deputy Election Commissioners, Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Nitesh Vyas and T. Sreekanth, besides Director General Sheyphali B. Sharan.
