DW BUREAU / chandigarh In a major decision to provide gainful employment opportunities to the youth looking for employment avenues, the Punjab Cabinet on Monday approved recruitment to 26,454 posts lying vacant in various government departments. A decision to this effect was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here at CMO this morning. According to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office, these posts belong to Group A, B and C. Major Departments involved in this process will be Home Affairs, School Education, Health, Power and Technical Education. The Cabinet also directed the concerned Administrative Departments to ensure transparent, fair and time bound recruitment. It has also been decided that interviews would not be conducted for the recruitment for Group-C posts. This decision would go a long way in achieving the goal to provide employment. Besides, this step would also optimise the working of Government departments as they will start working with full Human Resource on hand and provide government jobs to the youth of the State on the other. MLAs of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to get one pension In another landmark decision, the Cabinet also gave approval regarding amendment in Clause 3(1) of 'The Punjab State Legislature Members (Pension and Medical Facilities Regulation) Act, 1977' to give MLAs of Punjab Vidhan Sabha one pension (irrespective of number of terms served) at new rate of Rs. 60,000/- per month plus Dearness Allowance (as applicable to the pensioners of Punjab Government) instead of present provision according to which a member is being paid a pension of fifteen thousand rupees per mensem plus Dearness Allowance thereon (as admissible to the Punjab Government Pensioners) for the first term, and an additional pension of ten thousand rupees plus Dearness Allowance thereon (as admissible to the Punjab Government Pensioners) for every subsequent term. The Punjab Government will thus save around Rs. 19.53 crore annually after this amendment. Cabinet nod to amnesty scheme for small transporters In a bid to give much needed relief to commercial vehicle operators, the Cabinet gave a go ahead to the State Transport Department's Amnesty Scheme from May 6 to August 5, 2022 for collecting the motor vehicle tax from the commercial vehicle fine. However, the department would neither collect interest nor late fee while issuing the fitness certificate. It may be recalled that the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 badly impacted the transport sector across the state. Resultantly, several commercial vehicle operators could not deposit the Motor Vehicle Tax on time due to which fitness certificate could not be issued to these operators as the fitness certificate is issued to only those vehicles whose Motor Vehicle Tax is cleared/deposited in time by the operators. CABINET APPRISED ABOUT BLENDING OF IMPORTED COAL IN THERMAL PLANTS To overcome the shortage of domestic coal supply especially during the Paddy season, the Cabinet was apprised about the Ministry of Power, Government of India's letter dated December 7, 2021 advising to use imported coal for blending purpose to the extent of 4% for the year FY 2022-23 and to take necessary steps immediately so as to arrange imported coal by May, 2022 i.e. before the onset of rainy season to avoid critical coal stocks, and build up required coal stocks. OKAYS RELIEF for LOSS TO COTTON CROP (2021) IN SRI MUKTSAR SAHIB To extend financial relief to the farmers out of State Budget, the Cabinet also gave approval to provide relief of Rs. 5400/- per acre assuming 50% loss to the cotton crop in entire area in Sri Muktsar Sahib district. Resultantly, Rs.38.08 crore and Rs. 3.81 crore would be released to these affected farmers and farm labourers respectively out of state budget. Pertinently, a relief to the tune of Rs. 4.74 crore to the farmers and of Rs.47.44 lakh to the farm labourers was disbursed in Sri Muktsar Sahib in lieu of loss of cotton crop in 2021. (editor@dailyworld.in)