Punjab cabinet approves recruitment of 8,400 cops in 4 years

Chandigarh, Dec 12 (IANS) To open new avenues of employment for the youth, the Punjab cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday approved recruitment of 8,400 police personnel, including 1,200 Sub-Inspectors and 7,200 Constables, in four years.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by the Chief Minister here.

Divulging details, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister's office said the Cabinet has approved recruitment of 1,800 Constables and 300 Sub-Inspectors every year for four years to overcome the scarcity of employees in wake of their superannuation in next years.

As for these 2,100 posts, every year around 2.50 lakh candidates are expected to apply for these posts so all the aspirants will get involved in academics as well as in improving their physique for clearing the tests.

"This will channelise their unbounded energy in a positive direction and help them in weaning away from the menace of drugs. Likewise, this recruitment will also open new vistas of employment for the youth of the state," the spokesperson said.

A fixed schedule will be adopted for advertisement, conduct and declaration of results for these exams every year.

As per this schedule, advertisement for exam will be issued in January, written exam will be conducted in May-June, physical test will be held in September and result will be announced in November every year.

In order to ensure smooth functioning of the Revenue Department, the Cabinet also gave nod to fill 710 posts in the department.

This will help maintaining and updating the new record as well as maintaining old revenue records to facilitate the public in availing the services in a time-bound manner.

To streamline the activities of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), the Cabinet also gave approval to allow the Department of Higher Education and Languages to hire 203 employees on an outsourcing basis.

This will help immediately and urgently address the issue of acute shortage of manpower in the NCC units till regular recruitment. It will further facilitate smooth running of the NCC units and will result in higher enrolment of students as cadets.

Giving a big relief to crusher owners as well as the end users, the Cabinet gave nod to amend the new crusher policy to get rid of the double charging of Environment Management Fund (EMF).

As per the already notified new crusher policy, it is mandatory to charge EMF at the rate of Re 1 per cubic feet, which the crusher owners have to submit along with their returns.

The EMF is ought to be charged both from the screening as well as crushing units on the same output as per new crusher policy.

But the input cost of final product and material is increased substantially and the sale price of finished product is not economically viable at the rates fixed by the government due to increase in input cost as it amounts to charging the material twice as the output of the screening plants is consumed by the other crushers.

In the public interest, it has been decided that if upon verification it is found that EMF amount has already been paid by the screening plant for the quantity that has not been sold in the open market or to the end users directly, the EMF amount will be refunded to the screening plant unit within two months.