Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today announced that the SC post
matric scholarship payment in government and private colleges, which was
cleared in the audit inquiry conducted to weed out fake enrolments, was
disbursed up till January 2018.
The chief minister also
disclosed that all the arrears towards old age pension had been cleared
with the disbursement process completed till February, thus making the
pension payment up-to-date for 2018.
The government had already
announced its decision to allocate a monthly sum of Rs 128 crore to
ensure regularisation of old age pension payment, he added.
The
chief minister disclosed this while interacting with Congress MLAs in
the concluding round of the pre-budget discussions initiated by him as
part of a unique, democratic exercise to take suggestions, inputs and
feedback from the elected representatives, said an official release.
During
the meeting, Amarinder promised in-toto implementation of the report of
the expert group set up to examine ways and means to revive the defunct
sugar mills in the state.
He assured the members that the
government would leave no stone unturned to restart such mills and to
facilitate modernisation of sugar mills and upgradation of their
cogeneration facilities.
Members from Nawanshahr sought release
of funds for pending dues of sugarcane farmers, on which the chief
minister said the issue was being addressed.
Some members asked
for the softening of CLU conditions for setting up new rice shelling
units to boost industry and employment opportunities.
The chief
minister also responded positively to the request from members for
greater financial support for development in their respective
constituencies in the forthcoming budget.
Amarinder said his
government was committed to the implementation of every poll promise and
would continue to explore ways to generate revenue and resources for
development works.
Ludhiana MLAs expressed concerns about the
pitiable condition of the 16-km Buddha Nala and encroachment of
government and corporation land, to which Local Government Minister
Navjot Singh Sidhu assured of early steps to initiate the process of
recalling encroached land.
Most MLAs wanted better education
infrastructure in their respective constituencies. The chief minister
said education was high on his government's priority agenda.
Technical
Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi informed the meeting that job
letters would be given to unemployed youth during the job fair to be
held on March 11.
Traffic concerns, sewerage problems, shifting
of dairies and bus stands and stubble burning were some of the other
concerns raised by the members.
The members also wanted higher
allocation of funds, in the budget, for research and prevention of
cancer, as well as for the pollution control programmes in the state.
Discussions were also held on the issue regularisation of illegal colonies, for which a time-bound policy was sought.
PTI
