The Hindu : Punjab to present vote-on-account

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Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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Punjab to present vote-on-account

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, FEB 4 .The ruling Congress in Punjab has set itself in the election mode. The State Council of Ministers today decided to postpone the presentation of budget and instead convened an all-party meeting. It also announced more sops while ratifying various concessions announced recently.

According to an official release, the Cabinet decided to present the vote- on-account in a brief session of the Vidhan Sabha in the last week of this month and authorised the Chief Minister to chalk out further details in this regard. A senior Minister said that the decision to postpone the budget was taken as Lok Sabha elections are expected by early March.

The Council of Ministers whose meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, also unanimously decided to convene an all-party meeting on the contentious issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal. The meeting is scheduled to evolve a consensus to impress upon the Government of India to constitute a new commission to reassess the availability of river waters in Punjab as the Eradi Tribunal had become out-dated.

Disclosing this here, a spokesman of the Punjab Government said that the Council of Ministers also authorised the Punjab Chief Minister to lead an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister to urge upon him to accede to the genuine demand of the State Government. The neighbouring State has already approached the Apex Court in this regard.

The Cabinet also unanimously authorised the Chief Minister to take a decision regarding merger of the 50 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) with the basic pay as per the announcement made in the interim budget by the Union Finance Minister.

It was decided that allowances and perks already allowed to employees as per the terms and conditions of their appointments would not be withdrawn under any circumstance.

The meeting resolved that all the honest and hard working employees of the State Government would have its full protection and support during the unabated campaign against the corruption.

The spokesman further said that the Council of Ministers also approved to execute the additional State Government Guarantees of Rs. 10 crores in favour of National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCDC) and Rs.15 crores in favour of National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) on behalf of Punjab Backward Classes Land Development and Finance Corporation (BACKFINCO) for raising term loan amounting to Rs. 25 crores.

It was also decided to accord ex-post facto approval for the revision of the pattern of sharing of grant- in- aid between the State Government and the privately managed, Government- aided polytechnics in the State like Thapar Polytechnic, Patiala; Guru Nanak Dev Polytechnic, Ludhiana; Ramgarhia Polytechnic, Phagwara; and Mehr Chand Polytechnic, Jalandhar for the financial year 2002-03.

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Punjab to present vote-on-account