PUNJAB

Punjab minister Aman Arora said the will come out with a new affordable housing policy whose draft has been uploaded on official website for seeking suggestions from the public.

The AAP government will not leave any stone unturned to fulfill the common man’s aspirations to own a dream house, said Arora, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister. The draft of ‘Punjab Affordable Housing Policy-2022’ has been uploaded on the official website for seeking suggestions from the public, he said.

In the new policy, the minimum area for a plotted colony has been fixed at five acres and for a group housing project at two acres, the minister said. The saleable area has been increased to 65 per cent as compared to 55 per cent in normal colonies to provide plots at affordable rates to common man, he said. The change of land use, external development charges and other charges have also been reduced to 50 per cent. Maximum plot size has been fixed at 150 square yards and maximum size of the flat will be 90 square metres, it said. Relaxation is being provided for parking norms to reduce the cost of construction, the minister said. He also said this policy will not be applicable in New Chandigarh (Mullanpur) area. To enable speedy clearances and other approvals, Arora said a single competent authority has been designated at local level irrespective of the size of the colony. All powers for approvals have been delegated to the chief administrators of the concerned urban development authorities, he said. The policy will also encourage promoters to get their colonies approved in hassle-free manner and will curb mushrooming of unauthorized colonies, he added.

According to the Member Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Krunesh Garg, the necessary directions have already been issued to the concerned Deputy Commissioners to give a special attention to the hotspot villages as each of such villages had witnessed more than 25 fire incidents during the last season.

Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Tarn Taran, Moga and Mansa were identified as hotspot districts, where more than 4000 active fire incidents of paddy stubble burning cases were reported in each of these districts in the past.

Pointing out further, Garg said that a control room in each district has also been set up for monitoring the stubble burning incidents, uploading of the data to mobile apps to the dashboard and preparation and submission of action taken reports to different quarters.

Notably, the has embarked upon a massive program for management of paddy straw, without burning, by the farmers. As many as, 76626 subsidized agro-machines or equipment have been supplied to the farmers, Cooperative Societies, Panchayats and Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) under the Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme in the last three years.

During this year, the Punjab Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has already sanctioned more than 31,000 machines against the applications received from the farmers, PACSs, Panchayats and CHCs for purchasing agri-machinery on 50 percent to 80 percent subsidy for in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy residue.

For the first time in Punjab, four startups have been approved for seed funding of Rs 3 lakh each after due evaluation process by the state-level committee. Punjab industries and commerce minister Sunder Sham Arora said .

Hhanded over sanction letters and cheques of Rs 3 lakh each to four new ventures at a ceremony organised by Startup Punjab at Udyog Bhawan.

The minister said the through Startup Punjab was committed to strengthening the startup ecosystem by providing mentorship, fiscal support, incubation and acceleration support.

Punjabhas emerged as one of the best performers in the country, while Barnala has topped among all the districts in the most significant domain of schooleducationlearning outcome shows the report released by the Union ministry of Education about a week ago.

ThePerformanceGrading Index Report 2021-22 used 73 indicators and six domains to assess the potential of schools across the country.
Besides Barnala, six more districts of Punjab Ferozepur, Patiala, Muktsar, Moga, Amritsar and Mansa are among the top-12 performers in the country in the Learning outcome category.

Punjab has been grabbing the top slots on the list for the past three years, but the achievement was lost first due to the Punjab governments silence on it, and then because of floods, which grabbed focus from all the quarters.

The state has been ranked second in the overall performance with a score of 647.4, while its joint capital Chandigarh is on the top at 659.
In learning outcome, Punjab tops the country with a grade score of 113.6, followed by Chandigarh (103.4), Rajasthan (98.8) and Delhi (63.8).

Punjab was at 22nd position in 2017-18, when the grading system was launched. However, following the reforms pushed during Captain Amarinder Singhs government, it jumped to 13th rank in 2018-19 before securing the top position the next year.

The Pspcl top brass apprised the PSEB Engineers Association that its letter mentioning two points had been considered and a committee had been formed. The three-member committee should submit its report within a month, reads the letter. Till 2020, the PSPCL has surrendered unutilised power worth more than Rs 4,000 crore. The per-unit cost from the IPPs has been increasing. Moreover, the IPPs have been finding loopholes and indulging in litigation. The overall impact of such a litigation will be around Rs 20,000 crore over the next remaining 20 years of the agreements.

Under the agreements, fixed charges are to be paid to these three Plants even if the state does not require power. In its opinion to the government, the Punjab Advocate General office has already opined that there was deviation from bidding guidelines, adding that the very quantum of power required to be procured by the then was unnecessarily increased by the state.

PunjabandHaryanaare lagging in constructing roads, houses and providing sustainable livelihood to people living in rural areas. Both the states missed the targets set under the flagship schemes of the central government by big margins, according to the progress report on the 20-point programme compiled by theUnion ministry of statisticsfor the first three quarters of 2022-23.

In both states, over 60% of the Population resides in rural areas. Despite that, the two states are underperforming in the implementation of thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Grameen) aimed at providing pucca houses with supply of water, electricity and toilet facility for all homeless people living in kutcha or dilapidated houses.

Haryana has achieved only 19% of the target, constructing 882 houses against a target of 4,734 set for the period between April 2022 and December 2022, while Punjab could only achieve 22% of the target.

The state built 1,840 houses during the period against the target of 8,481. The neighbouring Himachal Pradesh fared better as it achieved 72% of the target set for the corresponding period by constructing 2,126 houses against a target of 2,973.

Punjab and Haryana have also been found wanting as far as implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana a scheme to provide all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages is concerned. The two states could not even meet half of the targets set under the scheme. While Haryana achieved a target of 45%, constructing 297 km of roads against the target of 657 km, Punjab achieved 47% of the target by constructing 353 km of roads against a target of 750 km.

Both the states also floundered in the execution of the (NRLM), which aims at creating institutional platforms for the rural poor, enabling them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial Services.

Punjab has received 804.26 metric ton liquid medical Oxygen (LMO) to date by operating 30 flights with assistance of the Indian Air Force since April 17.

due to the long journey involved in taking trucks to and from Bokaro, Jharkhand, and Hazira, Gujarat, from where Punjab gets its LMO quota, the state decided to airlift the oxygen tankers to the two Plants from the Chandigarh air base and bring these back by road.

The decision turned the situation in states favour as it was able to obtain adequate oxygen supplies.

Finance, Excise and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday launched the State Intelligence and Preventive Unit (SIPU), and GST Prime, an analytical tool for state GST officers, to analyse and monitor tax collection and compliance in their jurisdiction.

Addressing the launch event at Punjab Bhawan, Cheema said the existing seven mobile wings of the Taxation Department at Amritsar, Bathinda, Fazilka, Shambu in Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar had now been converted into State Intelligence and Preventive Units (SIPUs), besides creating three new SIPUs. The three new SIPUs will be at Madhopur in Pathankot, Mohali and Central Unit at the Head Office, Patiala. The Central Unit and SIPUs will work directly in coordination with Tax Intelligence Unit, Patiala, he added.

Highlighting the key features of GST Prime, the Finance Minister said the portal would result in better tax monitoring by officials and enhanced compliance by the taxpayers. He said the system caters to the requirements of the field offices and enforcement & intelligence offices to identify the defaulters and tax evaders. The system acts as an interface between GST Common Portal and E-way Bill Systems and tax administrators, he added. Cheema said the initiatives of the department were aimed at effective tax compliance, identification of top defaulters, keeping tax payers details at finger tips and to detect frauds.

The Punjab Government has decided to extend the time period of a policy by five years under which riot and terror attack victims in the state get five per cent reservation in allotment of plots or houses without any financial concession.

Revenue Minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa said the Punjab Government had decided to extend the facility of reservation in allotment of plots/houses by urban estates, improvement trust and PEPSU Development Board without any financial concession for five more years.

The Revenue Minister said this facility of reservation was abolished on December 31, 2021, but with the decision taken now, it had been extended till December 31, 2026.

With sewerage and drainage networks in several cities in bad shape, theAshok Gehlotgovernment has allocated Rs 1,800 crore for improvement of sewerage facilities, drainage and beautifications in urban areas.
Officials claimed the fund will help to improve sewerage and drainage networks to a great extent.

Forget about other cities, sewerage and drainage conditions in the state capital Jaipur are in a bad shape. We should wait and check the distribution of this fund and the amount meant for the two municipal corporations in Jaipur. Hopefully, we can repair the networks to some extent, an official said.