The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. (Twitter/@BhagwantMann)The Punjab Cabinet on Friday gave its nod to amend rules to ensure only those candidates are appointed to the state government’s Group C and D posts who have “in-depth knowledge” of the Punjabi language.
According to an official statement, the landmark decision is aimed at further cementing the ethos of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Punjab Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here.
“The cabinet gave nod for amending Rule 17 of Punjab Civil Services (General and Common Conditions of services) Rules, 1994 and Punjab State (Group D) Service Rules 1963 with an aim to ensure that only those candidates are appointed in the Punjab government who have in-depth knowledge of Punjabi language,” it said.
It said that in rule 17 of the Punjab Civil Services (General and Common Conditions of Service) Rules, 1994, the first proviso, for the words “Provided that where a person”, has been replaced with “Provided that no person shall be appointed to any post in Group-‘C’ service unless he has passed a qualifying test of Punjabi language equivalent to matriculation standard with at least 50 per cent marks, to be conducted by respective recruitment agencies in addition to competitive examination.” The test of Punjabi language shall be a mandatory qualifying test and failure to secure a minimum of 50 per cent marks in Punjabi will disqualify the candidate for being considered in the final merit list of candidates to be selected irrespective of their scores or marks in other papers of the respective exam.
“Similarly as per amendment in clause (d) of the Rule 5, in the Punjab State (Group-D) Service Rules, 1963, the words ‘provided that’ has been replaced with ‘Provided that no person shall be appointed to any post in any service by direct appointment unless he has passed a qualifying test of Punjabi language equivalent to middle standard with at least 50 per cent marks..,” it said.
Seeking to curb illegal mining, the Punjab government Friday approved to enhance the slab of penalty from existing Rs 5000-Rs 25,000 by ten times to Rs 50000-Rs 2.5 lakh. For this, the government will amend rule 7.5 of the Punjab Minor Minerals Rules 2013. The penalty rate will depend upon the carrier mode including tractor trolly and other small vehicles, truck and multi-axel truck or others.
The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
With a view to cut down financial expenditure and administrative burden, the Cabinet gave approval to amend in Section 3 (1) of ‘The Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act-1961’ to abolish the posts of vice-chairman and senior vice-chairman, created in 2010 and 2016, respectively, in Punjab Mandi Board.
The Cabinet also gave its approval to abolish the existing 23 posts of Assistant Commissioner (Grievances) with creation of a similar number of new posts of Chief Minister’s field officer at district level. With this decision, the citizens would get a formal platform where their grievances can be redressed in a timely manner after being analysed in an impartial, categorical manner. The DC of the district shall monitor the work of the Chief Minister’s field officer regularly and have requisite support provided for effective redressal of grievances.
The Cabinet also approved the scheme for compassionate appointment to the wards of the deceased employees of PSEB (now PSPCL) who died before April 16, 2010 and were earlier covered under solatium policy.