Cabinet okays amendments to implement Punjabi in schools, offices

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, November 7

In a bid to strictly implement Punjabi as the compulsory subject for all students of Classes I to X across the state, the Cabinet on Sunday approved an amendment to the Punjab Learning of Punjabi and Other Languages Act, 2008, to enhance the penalties for contravening the provisions of the Act.

The Cabinet also gave the go-ahead to introduce the Bill in the current session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

Any school, which contravenes the provisions of the Act or the rules, made thereunder for a month for the first time, will have to pay a penalty of Rs 50,000. If the school contravenes the provisions of the Act or the rules for a month for the second time, then it will have to pay a penalty of Rs 1 lakh. For the third violation, the fine would be Rs 2 lakh.

The Cabinet also approved amendment to the Official Languages Act, to which in addition to punishment the provision of penalty against officers/officials who do not conduct official business in Punjabi language has been made. As per this provision, the first-time guilty officer or official could be fined Rs 500 as per the recommendations of the Director, Language Department, Punjab. The second and third offences carry a fine of up to Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000, respectively.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved reduction in the simple interest from 15 per cent per annum to 7.5 per cent per annum, charged on the amount of enhancement recoverable from allottees of the Improvement Trust. This will benefit nearly 40,000 families under various schemes of the Improvement Trusts.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to the Punjab Tissue Culture Based Seed Potato Rules-2021 to develop Punjab as a standard potato seed centre, which would further help in achieving the target of diversification of the state government by increasing the potato acreage with production of 4 LMT of potato from 1 lakh hectare. This would help to develop the Jalandhar-Kapurthala belt as the export hub of potato.

Enhanced pension through cheque

Ex-post approval was given to payment of enhanced pension through cheques under the Old Age Pension and other financial schemes for July, 2021, as one-time relaxation in the rules.