Punjab Cabinet approves restructuring of four departments

Chandigarh, March 1

The Punjab Cabinet on Monday approved the restructuring plans of four departments—excise and taxation, town and country planning, medical education and research and rural development and panchayats, an official statement said.

The move is aimed to bring more efficiency and streamline the functioning of the departments, it said.

To generate more revenue, the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh approved the creation of 110 new posts in the taxation commissionerate, and 59 new posts in the excise commissionerate of the excise and taxation department, it said.

Notably, the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) has brought services under the ambit of the department and added a new feature of audit, which involves examination of records, returns and other documents maintained by GST registered people, it said.

The cabinet also gave a go-ahead to the restructuring of the directorate of town and country planning.

Now, there will be a separate position of director, town and country planning, who will be in-charge of planning along with licensing, regulatory and enforcement functions in the state, which was earlier under the chief administrators.

The cabinet approved the transfer of 0.92 acre land of the health department to the 200-bed Max Hospital, Mohali for upgradation of health services by adding 100 more beds, it said.

The health department entered into a concession agreement with Max Healthcare to transfer the said land of civil hospital, Mohali, it added.

In addition to Rs 389.57 lakh as upfront fee of the land, the government would get 5 per cent of the gross revenue generated by the hospital after the addition of the new beds.

The cabinet also approved to amend ‘The Punjab Regional And Town Planning and Development Act, 1995’, ‘The Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995’ and ‘The Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995’.

After the amendments, the promoter shall be able to give advertisement only after registration under RERA, 2016 and will be liable to disclose exact space under the common area, and shall not take more than 10 per cent of the sale price as advance money, which was earlier 25 per cent, it said.

To boost the pace of infrastructure development by levying special ID fee, the cabinet gave its nod to introduce the Punjab Infrastructure (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2021 in the ongoing budget session.

The cabinet also approved the transfer 507 vacant posts of rural medical officers along with other posts of contractual paramedical and class-IV of the subsidiary health centres from the department of rural development and panchayat back to the health and family welfare department. PTI