Taran Tarn is new district

The Punjab Council of Ministers has given approval to create Tarn Taran as the 19th district of the State which would comprise of 493 Revenue villages of three sub divisions of Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib and Patti and be a part of Jalandhar Division in commemoration of 400 th year of Martyrdom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev ji on 16th June, 2006.
The Council of Ministers in its meeting held here under the Chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh today gave approval to refer about 9000 terrorist affected cases of involving a financial liability to the tune of Rs.405 crore to Government of India for providing ex-gratia and rehabilitation grant at par with 1984 riot victims on the recommendations of the cabinet committee constituted under the chairpersonship of Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

Disclosing this here today a Spokesman of the Punjab Government said that the State Government had so far disbursed financial grant of Rs.168.32 crore to 8416 riot victims of 1984 as per the recommendations of Justice Nanawati Commission of Inquiry.

The Council of Ministers also approved to pay compensation of Rs.3.65 crore to 365 Jodhpur detenues @ Rs.1 lakh per detenue due to economic hardships suffered by them and their families.

The Council of Ministers also gave approval to provide 200 units per month of free electricity supply to Scheduled Caste domestic consumers without any restriction of connected load after seeking necessary approval from the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Presently, the domestic consumers belonging to SC categories having connected load up to 500 watts were getting free electricity.

The Council of Ministers also gave a green signal to constitute a multi member Punjab State Vigilance Commission on the pattern of Central Vigilance Commission under the chairmanship of State Vigilance Commissioner.

The Council of Ministers also approved to merge 50% of the D.A. in the basic pay of teaching and non-teaching staff of Private Aided schools from 1.4.2004 with the condition that the arrear payable to the employees of these schools upto 31.03.2006 shall have to be deposited in the National Saving Certificates to be purchased from Post Office in the state of Punjab and the employees would be paid in cash w.e.f. 1.4.2006.

The Council of Minister gave its nod for the transfer of 188 Government Primary schools in Bhatinda, Faridkot, Mansa, Moga, and Muktsar from the Education Department to the Panchyati Raj Institutions (PRIs) thereby creating 650 additional posts, a requirement which had been calculated by the department of Rural Development & Panchayats in order to provide employment to all eligible unemployed ETT diploma holders applicable in the State.

The Council of Ministers also approved to levy Zero rate of VAT on Pre-owned Cars and to make necessary amendment in schedule 'A' appended to the Punjab value Added Tax Act, 2005 from the date of its publication.

The Council of Ministers also gave ex-post facto approval to increase the existing strength of members of Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board from ten to twelve. The Board had already appointed 3 members namely Sarvshri Col.Zorawar Singh, Harminder Singh Gill and Sarbjit Singh Sandhu leading to the increase in strength of members of the Board to 12.

The Council of Ministers also gave approval to create 5 posts of Assistant Programmers on contract basis for the district treasuries of Muktsar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Nawanshahr, Mansa and Moga.

The Council of Ministers also approved the Administrative Report of the Punjab Public Service Commission for the year 2000-01.