The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendment to the service rules to cut down on the experience requirement for promotion across various cadres. The amendment, in line with the announcement by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Vidhan Sabha on February 20, 2019, will help fill the vacant posts of higher cadres.As per the decision of the Cabinet, which met under the Chief Minister, there would be no reduction in experience if requisite qualifying service is two years or less. Reduction of one year would be permissible in case the requisite qualifying service is more than two years but less than five years.In case where the requisite qualifying service is seven years or more, the reduction will be two years, while for qualifying service of 10 years or more, it would be three years, an official spokesperson disclosed after the cabinet meeting.In a series of other important decisions, the Punjab Cabinet sanctioned several new teaching and non-teaching posts and regularized services for others in various state colleges.The cabinet sanctioned recruitment for 228 posts, including 88 Teaching and 140 Non-Teaching posts, for the newly established College of Veterinary Sciences at Rampura Phul. Of these, 70 vacancies would be filled up this year itself. These would include 32 Teaching and 38 Non-Teaching posts. The move would help in providing better Animal Health Care services in the state, which would further enhance milk production, besides encouraging livestock owners to improve breed of their milch cattle, said an official spokesperson after the cabinet meeting.
The Cabinet also regularised the services of 127 Assistant Professors, working in Government Aided Colleges, who have completed three years of service. The decision would involve an additional burden of over Rs. 4.38 Crores annually. The step would help enhance standards of higher education in the grant-in-aid colleges in the state.Of the total 1925 vacant posts of Assistant Professors in Grant-in-Aid Colleges, 1332 have been filled, out of which these 127 completed three years in September 2018. The Colleges will be required to complete the whole process of regularisation at their own level.In another decision, Cabinet gave the nod to regularise services of three Forest Department employees currently working on contract basis as Surveyors (Social Mapper). This has been done in pursuance of the directions of the Punjab & Haryana High Court on the pattern of 28 employees regularized earlier.Meanwhile, the Cabinet has okayed the restructuring of the administrative structure of the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWCC) on a cost neutral basis, besides also giving nod to the recruitment plan for filling 748 posts in Group A, B, and C over the next three years and 1528 posts for specialised tasks immediately on contractual basis. The decision has been taken in view of the changed role of DWSS over the last decade - from a purely construction centric department to a service delivery department. The restructuring plan includes creation of a new planning, design and quality assurance wing, and strengthening of Finance and Revenue, water quality, social and IEC, IT and Legal Wings.