Riverwater charges for non-agricultural purposes revised

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, December 4

The Cabinet today decided to increase charges for the use of river/canal water for purpose other than agriculture, increasing the projected revenue generation from Rs24 crore to Rs319 crore. The charges have been brought on a par with the charges in Haryana.

The additional resources would enable the Department of Water Resources to undertake maintenance of canal network spread along 14,500 km across the state. With passage of time, most of the distributaries and minors that were lined 30-40 years ago have deteriorated. Regular cleaning is required to run the canals efficiently so as to ensure authorised discharge at tail ends.

Apart from irrigation, water was supplied in bulk to various institutions such as thermal power plants, industries, municipal corporations, beverage and bottled water industry, drinking water supply (including Railways and Army), fish ponds, brick making and for construction work. It is yet to be seen whether consumers of canal water supply will be burdened with the increased charges.

Nod to patwaris’ recruitment

The Cabinet gave nod to recruit 1,090 patwaris against vacant posts. The approval was given to posting of a kanungo for seven patwar circles instead of the existing practice of one kanungo after 10 patwar circles, thus creating 34 new posts of kanungo for this purpose.

Industry Act amended

The Cabinet approved amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, providing a time limit of 3 years to raise an industrial dispute before a conciliation officer and its reference later to the labour court under Section 2A of the Act.

In another amendment, any industry employing 100 persons or more would not have to take prior approval from the state government before closing down the industry, laying off, retrenchment or lock-out. Now, any unit employing at least 300 workers will only have to take permission.

Outstanding MSMEs to be awarded

Chandigarh: The government has decided to confer the Punjab State MSME Awards 2019 to outstanding micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) which have registered tremendous business growth in investment, employment generation, turnover, energy efficiency, exports and employees’ welfare for the last two financial years. The MSMEs will be honoured by the CM with a cash award and a certificate on December 5, the first day of the Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit 2019.