The Punjab Cabinet that met on Wednesday approved the draft of the Punjab (Institutions and Other Buildings) Tax Act 2010, according to which Re 1 per square foot per year will be charged if one has a property measuring above 500 square feet outside the municipal limits. While residential property, hospitals, schools up to Class XII, government godowns for storage of food grains have been exempted from this tax, marriage places, mall-cum-multiplexes, hotels and resorts, colleges, universities, commercial property and all other properties will now be taxed. This was one of the recommendations of the Sukhbir-Kalia committee set up by the government on fiscal management.

The draft will be placed in the Vidhan Sabha during the Monsoon Session and after approval of the House, it will be notified in the state.

The council of ministers also gave a go-ahead to the policy for regularisation of unauthorised and unplanned colonies across the state. All such colonies that have come up before August 2007 and are not meeting the set guidelines can now pay between Rs 250 and Rs 400 per square yard of saleable area and get themselves regularised. There are 3,500 illegal colonies in the state.

The Cabinet also approved to rationalise entry tax on various items with a view to protect the local industry.

The draft will be placed in the Vidhan Sabha during the Monsoon Session and after approval of the House, it will be notified in the state.

The council of ministers also gave a go-ahead to the policy for regularisation of unauthorised and unplanned colonies across the state. All such colonies that have come up before August 2007 and are not meeting the set guidelines can now pay between Rs 250 and Rs 400 per square yard of saleable area and get themselves regularised. There are 3,500 illegal colonies in the state.

The Cabinet also approved to rationalise entry tax on various items with a view to protect the local industry.

The Cabinet also approved amendment in the Punjab Police Services Rules 1959. As a result, 60 per cent inspectors will be now promoted as DSPs from district cadre, 24 per cent from PAP and eight per cent each from intelligence and wireless units of the state police.

It also gave approval to fill vacancies of six professors, four readers and 21 lecturers in different departments of the Government Ayurvedic College, Patiala, through direct recruitment by taking these posts out of the purview of the Punjab Public Service Commission.

It also gave nod to grant status of Cabinet Minister to Joginder Kaur Tohra, wife of the late Gurcharan Singh Tohra, former MP and SGPC president. 

More Cabinet DECISIONS

* Ex post facto approval to include Kartarpur and Adampur subdivisions in Jalandhar (Rural) police district in addition to Nakodar, Shahkot and Phillaur

* Approval to provision of funds to panchayats for purchase of land for playgrounds and community halls in villages

* Nod to creation of 49 posts of teaching staff according to the norms of the Medical Council of India and to revive 56 sanctioned posts of teaching faculty under direct quota in the Department of Medical Education and Research

* Approved to recruit 101 clerks in the Punjab Civil Secretariat

* Nod to amendment in the Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and Finance Corporation Act 1970 and the Punjab Backward Classes Land Development and Finance Corporation Act 1976 to enable the appointment of one of the directors as vice-chairman * Approval to amend Pepsu Townships Development Board Act 1954

The state government has sought a report from the Kharar Municipal Council (MC) in the alleged scam involving the construction of a state-of-the-art sports stadium in the town.

Newsline had reported on July 25 that a sum of Rs 1 crore has been shown as spent to develop Kharar’s first-ever stadium at an eight acre site earmarked for it but there was nothing on ground to suggest any ongoing work.

Planning to spend another Rs 2 crore on the project, the civic body, during its meeting on July 14, had claimed that a tower of high-tension power supply lines installed recently by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited in the plot has rendered the stadium useless.

Taking cognisance of the matter, Director, Local Government (DLG), Punjab, S K Sharma has asked the MC Executive Officer to peruse the case for getting the tower shifted from the stadium plot and send a detailed report to his office so that the case could be discussed at the government level as well.

Though the civic body claims that the tower has been erected in the middle of a 400-metre athletic track, no such track is visible at the site.

The plot, surrounded by pools of dirty stagnant water and heaps of garbage, has neither any approach road nor any boundary wall as yet. The ground is neither levelled nor marked for any type of sports. Besides, an open drain passes through the ground. The filthy conditions promote insect breeding and the place is full of mosquitoes, flies amid foul smell. 

At the MC meeting, a resolution was adopted to ask the Power Corporation to shift the tower, which has rendered the stadium useless and the expenditure of Rs 1 crore, including Rs 36 lakh from government grants, is going down the drain.

Power Corporation Senior Executive Engineer P S Bains, meanwhile, has accused the MC of raising no objections on the draft notification of the tower line alignment made in 2006, following which it was approved and now no alteration can be made.