The announcement was made during the recent Budget Session of Vidhan Sabha. (Representational photo)After debt waiver to small and marginal farmers, Punjab government is extending the scheme to farm labourers and landless members of Primary Cooperative Agricultural Credit Societies, providing a major relief to 2.85 lakh people, of which around 70 per cent are Dalits.
The Cabinet on Saturday gave its nod to the scheme, which will cost the state exchequer Rs 520.55 crore.
The waiver includes principal amount of Rs 388.55 crore, Rs 78 crore interest at the rate of 7 per cent per annum till March 31, 2017, besides Rs 54 crore interest at 7 per cent per annum from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2019, as outstanding.
The announcement was made during the recent Budget Session of Vidhan Sabha. The Chief Minister himself had given an assurance earlier that as the state’s financial condition improves, he will bring landless farmers and farm labourers into the ambit of the debt-relief scheme.
The amount eligible for debt relief will comprise the outstanding principal amount up to a limit of Rs 25,000 as on March 31, 2017, and simple interest at 7 per cent per annum.
The debt relief will not be available to those members who are either employees/pensioners of government/semi government/public sector undertaking of any state/Centre and or income tax payee.
If an individual has more than one account, the relief will be given for one account only, which has higher outstanding amount subjected to the maximum of Rs 25,000 as principal. The accounts of the beneficiaries will be Aadhaar-seeded to avoid duplication.
Under the debt-relief scheme of October 2017, till date, the government has waived off loans of Rs 5.47 lakh small and marginal farmers to the extent of approximately Rs 4,600 crore.
Sugarcane subsidy
After former minister Rana Gurjit Singh raised the issue of sugarcane farmers in the recent Vidhan Sabha session, the government has decided to give a subsidy of Rs 25 per quintal to them.
The Cabinet gave its approval for the subsidy that would be credited directly in the farmers’ accounts, out of a total State Agreed Price (SAP) of Rs 310, with the remaining Rs 285 per quintal to be paid to them by private sugar mills for crushing year 2018-19.
The move is a follow-up of the decision taken in this regard at a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister on December 5, 2018.
Notably, for the crushing year 2018-19, the government had decided to start operations of the crushing mills from November 15. Accordingly, crushing was started by cooperative sugar mills. However, none of the private sugar mills initiated the process of estimate/survey/bond/crushing by the stipulated time as the owners wanted to purchase sugarcane at Fair and Remunerative Price of Rs 275 per quintal fixed by the Government of India.
However, the state government had issued a notification to purchase sugarcane as per the State Agreed Price for early, mid and late varieties at Rs 310, Rs 300 and Rs 295 per quintal respectively.
Pension to parents of CRPF man
The Cabinet also gave its nod to Rs 10,000 per month pension for the bereaved parents of CRPF Constable Kulwinder Singh who was killed in a terror attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14.
The Chief Minister had, during his visit to their house in Rauli village, announced a special monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to them (either or surviving parents) since they had no other children and the deceased was unmarried. He had then said the agenda note for the pension would be presented by the department of defence services welfare at the next Cabinet meeting.
The pension will be given in lieu of a job to the next of kin and in addition to the Rs 7 lakh ex-gratia and Rs 5 lakh cash in lieu of land, which the family is entitled to.
Civil judge selection
The Cabinet also gave ex post facto approval to entrust the selection process of 75 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division-cum-Judicial Magistrate) with the Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court, after taking them out of the purview of Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
The departments of finance, personnel and PPSC, Patiala, had already accorded their approval to hand over the recruitment process to the Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court, said a government statement.
Reservation to EWSs
The Cabinet gave its nod to bring a constitutional amendment to provide reservation in government jobs to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs) in General category. The proposed amendment relates to insertion of Clauses 15 (6) and 16 (6) in the Constitution of India, vide the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019.
Following the amendment, a 10 per cent reservation will be provided to the residents of Punjab belonging to EWSs who are not covered under the existing scheme of reservation for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, and whose families had gross annual income below Rs 8 lakh.
The reservation will be provided in direct recruitment to groups A, B, C and D posts in departments/boards/corporations/local bodies. Applicant family for this purpose will include income from all sources that is salary, agriculture, business, profession etc, for the financial year prior to that of application.
Also persons whose family owns or possesses any of the assets – five acres of agricultural land and above, residential flat of 1,000 sq ft and above, residential plot of 100 sq yards and above in notified municipalities and residential plot of 200 sq yards and above in areas other than the notified municipalities – will be excluded from being identified as EWS, irrespective of the family income. The income and assets of the family will be required to be certified after verifying all relevant documents as may be specified by the government, said the statement.
Labour rules
The Cabinet also approved The Punjab Labour and Cartage Policy 2019-20 for cartage of food grains from mandis to storage points at minimum rates through competitive tenders.
The cartage of food grains from mandis to various storage points, located up to 8 km from such mandi(s)/purchase centre(s), will be allowed through a competitive online tender process.
This will be done by district tender committees, of which the respective deputy commissioners will be the chairpersons, with district Food Corporation of India (FCI) head, district heads of all state procurement agencies and district controller of food supplies as members.
The state procuring agencies, PUNGRAIN, MARKFED, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation, PUNSUP, along with the FCI, procure food grains every year for the central pool or Public Distribution System at the Minimum Support Price fixed by the Government of India.
Journalists’ pension
The Cabinet gave an approval of Rs 12,000 per month pension to the state’s journalists who are accredited to the department of information and public relations.
With this decision, the government has conceded a long-pending demand of the journalist fraternity.
The journalists working with the state, who are above 60 years of age and have been accredited for five years, will be given the assistance.
