In March, Mann had announced that former MLAs would get pension for only one term, doing away with the practice of drawing the benefit for each term served by them. (File)DAYS after Governor Banwarilal Purohit returned an ordinance to regulate pension of the legislators asking the Punjab government to bring a Bill in the budget session of Vidhan Sabha, the state Cabinet Tuesday gave its nod for amending the clause 3(1) of ‘The Punjab State Legislature Members (Pension and Medical Facilities Regulation) Act, 1977’.
The Act will ensure that the former Punjab legislators get only one pension, irrespective of the number of terms served, at the rate of Rs 60,000 per month plus dearness allowance as applicable to the state pensioners. This will replace the existing provision as per which the legislators are being paid a pension of Rs 15,000 per month plus DA thereon (as admissible to the Punjab government pensioners) for the first term and an additional pension of Rs 10,000 plus DA thereon for every subsequent term. The Punjab government is expected to save around Rs 19.53 crore annually with this initiative, as per an official statement.
In March, Mann had announced that former MLAs would get pension for only one term, doing away with the practice of drawing the benefit for each term served by them.
MSP on moong
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The Cabinet also gave a nod for giving a minimum support price of Rs 7,275 per quintal for “moong” (green gram) by Markfed, a state nodal agency for the purchase of the crop. It was also decided to provide viability gap funding to the agency at the rate of Rs 1,875 per quintal amounting to nearly Rs 66.56 crore, said the release. During the current season, “moong” has been sown over about 95,000 acres with an expected yield of five quintals per acre. This will help in sowing short duration varieties of paddy, which is expected to save 10-20 per cent of underground water, thereby, conserving the natural resources.
Rural infra boost
The Cabinet also approved the introduction of the Punjab Rural Development (Amendment) Bill-2022 in the Vidhan Sabha by amending Section-7 of the Punjab Rural Development Act-1987. With its enactment, the rural development fund (RDF) shall be spent on various works, including construction or repair of approach roads to mandis and procurement centres, setting up of new mandis or procurement centres and augmenting storage facilities in mandis etc.
Stamp duty waiver
The Cabinet also decided to waive stamp duty being levied on executing the loan or hypothecation agreement up to Rs 50,000 for the street vendors in the state under PM SVANidhi Scheme. Decision was taken to provide succor to vendors badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The state government decided to waive Rs 127 levied on a loan agreement up to Rs 50,000 for street vendors. The Cabinet also gave green signal to Annual Administrative Reports of the Jails Department for the year 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 besides the Punjab Ex-Servicemen Corporation for 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
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