PUNJAB

Inadequate small cold storage facilities in rural areas is leading to losses for vegetables growers as keeping their produce in big cold stores costs them high rents. The transportation of crops from villages to big cities is also an issue due to which they sell their produce at a low cost.

Ram Singh of Bhaini Bagha village in Mansa says, Our area has high cultivation of capsicum and watermelon, but the prices of capsicum crashed to Rs 2.50 per kg from Rs 23-24 last year. It could be addressed only when growers get some control over the supply line through the cold Storage Facility.

Another vegetable grower Gurdeep Singh of Bathinda says that the government should support the farmers by providing them adequate .

Punjab government has introduced free testing and treatment of Hepatitis B in all government Health institutions, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Tuesday.

Presiding over the state-wide launch of the initiative at district hospital in Mohali, Sidhu said the has introduced Hepatitis B screening tests and treatment in all medical colleges, District Hospitals (DHs), Sub-Divisional Hospitals (SDHs) and AntiRetroviral Treatment (ART) and Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) centres.

The line of treatment for Hepatitis B is extensive and expensive but the state government will give free medicine to the concerned. Even the Hepatitis B positive Punjab patients under treatment in PGIMER will be provided medicine free of cost

Minister for promotionAnmol Gagan Maan saidPunjabhad bagged 507 industrial projects within the first three months this year. Of these, 318 projects pertain to the manufacturing sector, 139 to the Services-sector”>services sector, and 50 are related to the real estate sector, she said.

The minister said the robust Growth in investments reflected the states strong potential and attractiveness for businesses. The streamlined process for granting regulatory clearances through the single window system Invest Punjab Business First Portal positions the state as a promising investment destination, Maan added. The Punjab government had unveiled the Industrial and Business Development Policy at Investors Summit 2023.

Despite lockdown and economic downturn amid Covid, the has been able to better manage its finances in the last financial year as compared to the previous fiscal.

The revised estimates of the governments finances for 2020-21 reveal that the state had managed to achieve 84.62 per cent of its revenue targets for the last fiscal. In 2019-20, before the pandemic, the state had managed to achieve just 75.48 per cent of its targeted revenue collection.

The accounts for 2020-21 show that the state had achieved 81.84 per cent of its estimated tax revenue collection (Rs 40,595.81 crore against target of Rs 49,845.61 crore) and 48.59 per cent of its targeted non-tax revenue (Rs 3,909.92 crore against a target of Rs 8,045.99 crore).

Comparatively, in the previous year, Punjab had achieved just 78.47 per cent of its targeted tax revenue and 47.91 per cent of its targeted non-tax revenue. It may be mentioned that in the past several years, the collection of non-tax revenue in the state has always been low, in spite of the issue being deliberated upon and this being a focus area for improving the states finances.

The government stands committed to ensuring that the farmers face no difficulty in mandis during the current rabi Marketing season (RMS).

At Rs 2,125 per quintal, a total MSP of Rs 502.93 crore has been released directly into the bank accounts of 19,642 farmers in a single day, said Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak in a statement today. He added that no value cut had been imposed while releasing the payments.

The way the states finances are being managed, Punjabs is likely to cross Rs 5 lakh crore in 10 years. This fact came to the fore in a report on State Finances for 2021-22 prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General and tabled in the Assembly.

The state used the borrowed funds for meeting the current consumption and repayment of interest on outstanding loans but it is not a healthy trend. During 2017-22, the government utilised between 59% and 73% of its current borrowings for repayment of earlier borrowings. State incurred 64% of the total Revenue Expenditure on committed liabilities, leaving only 36% for the priority sector

Subsidies constituted 11 per cent to 18 per cent of the revenue expenditure during 2017-22

Power subsidy constituted a major portion of the total subsidies ranging between 68 per cent and 99 per cent

During 2021-22, the government spent ? 8,010 crore (25 per cent of the borrowed funds) on Capital Expenditure which showed a notable improvement in utilisation of borrowed funds towards creation of concrete assets

Entrepreneurs with smaller investments can set up a green with more ease. Following the new order, RajasthanState Pollution Control Board(RSPCB) has reduced the deadline for disposal of applications for green category industries to seven days for those with capital Investment of Rs 5 crore and 15 days for those with capital investment of more than Rs 5 crore. The previous deadline was 120 days.
As per provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1981, E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 and Hazardous and Other Waste (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016, the statutory timeline for disposal of Consent for setting up industries and authorisation applications received at State Pollution Control Board is within 120 days.

Ahead of the launch of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) first major Education project, Schools of Eminence, on Saturday in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the ‘s priority is to make “Punjab a leading state in the field of education nationwide.”

As per the government reports, under the project, the AAP government will upgrade existing government schools into ‘Schools of Eminence’ for classes 9 to 12. The government plans to upgrade nearly 110 government schools as ‘Schools of Eminence’ in Phase 1.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann recently had a war of words over the “remote control” jibe.