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Pb. Current Affairs

March 16th,2020

With Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh turning 78 this week, coinciding with his government completing three years in office on Monday, the Congress plans to project its key achievements under the slogan “Vikas Karda, Vadhda Punjab”.

After getting rid of the red beacon and pruning security cover of politicians in 2017, things are back to square one as a number of MLAs and party leaders are draining the exchequer by keeping more than sanctioned cops for security.

The legislation on conflict of interest to bring MLAs and ministers under its purview is awaited. Even the Lokpal Bill is still to be tabled in the Assembly. The salary and allowances of the MLAs have also not been put in the public domain.

Despite raids on and off, illegal mining continues unabated. The mining policy brought in 2018, through which the state collected Rs75 crore of the targeted Rs300 crore, has failed to check illegal mining. The government aims to bring a new policy to end the menace.

The promise to end monopoly in the transport business remains unfulfilled. Citing court cases, the government has not been able to rationalise routes by revising the bus timetable. It is hoped that the government will implement its decision to open 5,000 new minibus permits for youth and 2,000 extra route permits to end the monopoly.

The promise to bring to book culprits involved in the sacrilege incidents and police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura has not to be fulfilled due to legal encumbrances. Though the Supreme Court struck down the CBI contention to probe the sacrilege incidents, the Central agency is yet to hand over the probe to the state. The pressure is building upon the state government to take the emotive issue to its logical conclusion.

The government is under fire from its own MLAs over the delay in renegotiating the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private thermal plants to bring down power tariff. The state had announced a ‘white paper’ on the PPAs but has not been able to do so. Party leaders want action against officials who were instrumental in drafting the PPAs.

(Source:- The Tribune)

The cash-strapped government has not been able to contribute its entire share of funds for several Centrally-sponsored as well as its own schemes in the agriculture sector. As a result, most of the schemes for farmers have failed to take off.

Central schemes such as Remunerative Approach for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana) have remained a non-starter as the government failed to contribute its 40 per cent share in 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Centre had allotted Rs284.47 crore in 2017-18 under the RKVY, of which Rs131.42 crore was released to the state.
Data shows that there has been no release of funds in the horticulture sector, although Rs60 crore was allocated for the same in the Budget.

Department officials admit that disbursal from the Finance Department has been slow, which have affected the schemes. “Most funds are released to departments at the end of the fiscal year. We are expecting more funds in coming days,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.

(Source:- The Tribune)

Workers ‘denied’ health benefit, turn to SC panel.
Several labourers have knocked on the door of the Scheduled Castes (SC) Commission after they were allegedly denied benefits by the Health Department in the Patran block of Patiala.
For the last two months, they have been running from pillar to post to get benefits under the Ayushman Bharat Sehat Bima Yojana.

Eight families of construction workers went to the Patran Civil Hospital. However, they could not avail the benefits as the iris scanner was reportedly non-functional. Irked by the apathetic attitude of the department, the labourers have asked the SC Commission to intervene in the matter.

Iris scanning measures the unique patterns in irises, the coloured circles in people’s eyes. Biometric iris recognition scanners work by illuminating the iris with invisible infrared light to pick up unique patterns that are not visible to the naked eye.