Punjab cabinet okays Chief Minister’s Pilgrimage Scheme

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, November 6

The Punjab cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday gave nod to the Chief Minister’s Pilgrimage Scheme, under which people of Punjab will be facilitated to travel to places of pilgrimage.

The scheme, called the Mukh Mantri Teerath Yatra scheme, would be launched by the end of this month, said Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, after the meeting of Council of Ministers. The pilgrims will be sent in trains and buses, not just to religious places within the state, but also to those outside the state. A sum of Rs 40 crore has been set aside for the purpose.

Cheema said a cabinet sub-committee comprising ministers Aman Arora, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Laljit Singh Bhullar would work out the finer details of the scheme.

In another decision taken by the Cabinet, the war heroes’ pension had been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000, said Cheema. The Cabinet has also given its nod to increase the compensation to those  from paramilitary forces, suffering disability,  from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh for those suffering over 75 per cent disability.

Cheema said a one-time settlement scheme for the VAT and CST defaulters had also been approved by the cabinet. “This is our Diwali gift to the traders. Earlier, two such schemes were launched by our predecessors, but they had failed. We heard the traders from across the state and have come up with the scheme to ensure its success,” he said, adding that 39,787 traders would benefit from this. The scheme will remain in force from November 15 this year to March 15, 2024.

In a major administrative change in the revenue department, the government has also decided to have a common state cadre of all patwaris and kanungos.