In a pro-poor initiative, the Cabinet gave approval to consider all those families under Shagun scheme from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2016 across the state, which had applied after the prescribed period was over but otherwise eligible.A decision to this effect was taken in the meeting of Council of Ministers chaired by the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal here at Punjab Bhawan this evening.Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that in view of hardships faced by the economically poor families due to non-submission of their applications on time due to certain unavoidable reasons, this decision would now enable to cover such hapless families during the current fiscal year i.e. 2016-17, who were earlier denied the facility of Shagun of Rs.15,000/- w.e.f April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2016. It may be recalled that as per existing provision, the family could apply under this scheme a month prior and a month later from the day of marriage is solemnized.
The Cabinet also created three separate boards for the welfare of Christian, Saini and Ramgharia community, which would be represented as Christian Welfare Board, Saini Welfare Board and Ramgharia Welfare Board. These Boards would look into the issues and problems faced by the respective communities and would recommend solution to their problems. In another decision, the Cabinet also approved the creation of post of Senior Vice Chairman in all the Boards and Commissions set up by the State Government. The Cabinet also gave a go ahead to the new Group-A and Group-C Service Rules for the Directorate of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) under Department of Welfare. It may be recalled that the Cabinet had already declared the Directorate of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan as Nodal Department for the formulation and monitoring of the implementation of SCSP. Initially, the service rules of Planning Department were temporally adopted for the services of new Directorate until the formulation of its own Service Rules.
The Cabinet also okayed to amend Section 68 (7) of Punjab VAT Act, 2005 by substituting; ‘....an appeal has been preferred under this section, shall not be stayed by the High Court pending the final disposal of such appeal...’; with; ‘...an appeal has been preferred under this section, may be stayed for the reasons to be recorded in writing after hearing the State, by the High Court pending the final disposal of such appeal...’. The Cabinet also decided to transfer 46 villages of Kanugo Circle Jaura Chhattra in Sub-tehsil Dhariwal to tehsil Gurdaspur. It may be recalled that respective Gram Panchayats have already passed resolution to this effect and subsequently the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division and Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur have recommended that these villages may be transferred to Tehsil Gurdaspur in larger public interest besides their proximity with Gurdaspur city also.