Chandigarh: The Punjab cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, has approved the home delivery of wheat flour to 1.54 crore beneficiaries. The beneficiaries will start getting the flour from October 1. The decision will put an additional burden of Rs 670 crore on the state exchequer for grinding the wheat and delivering it to the beneficiaries at their doorstep. Till now, wheat was given to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act scheme every three months and the expense was Rs 1,825 crore.
The beneficiaries will now get 5 kilogram flour per month. The cabinet also decided on the finer details for starting the recruitment of 26,454 people in the government sector. This decision was taken in the first meeting and all departments were asked to identify the vacancies. An approval of the cabinet was also taken on the amnesty scheme for private transporters announced by CM Mann a few days back. Under the scheme, 78,000 bus, auto and taxi operators would benefit as they can pay their dues without paying any interest or fear of penalty being imposed on them.
Earlier, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited CMD Baldev Singh Sran gave a brief presentation to the cabinet regarding the power situation in the state. A briefing on buying 10 per cent imported coal for blending purposes was also given to the ministers. He is learnt to have told the ministers that PSPCL had supplied 32 per cent more power than supplied in the corresponding period last year. He said the problem of power scarcity last week was because of a technical snag in power plants. Another important decision taken on Monday was the implementation of the decision to give only one pension to MLAs. The CM had announced this earlier.