Punjab to set up Vigilance Commission to keep check on corruption

The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of a Vigilance Commission to check corruption among public servants and bring in more transparency.

A decision in this regard was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

"The Punjab State Vigilance Commission Ordinance, 2020 proposes to set up a commission as an independent body to exercise more effective superintendence over the functioning of the vigilance bureau and all departments of the state government, in order to provide clean, fair and transparent administration," a government statement issued here said.

The commission will comprise a chairman and two members with a term of five years, it said.

It will review the progress of investigations conducted by the vigilance bureau and the cases of prosecution sanction pending with various departments of the government, the statement said.

It shall tender advice to the various departments and other investigations on vigilance matters. It has also been empowered to inquire or cause an inquiry or an investigation to be made in respect of allegations made under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other relevant offences against public servants, it said.

While there is a Central Vigilance Commission established under the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, there is no such body at present under the state government.

The Cabinet, in another decision, approved filling up of 8,393 posts of pre-primary teachers to make the pre-primary government schools more competitive and increase enrolment, said the statement.

Relaxation in age and special credit would be given to existing experienced volunteers working in the Education department at the time of recruitment of pre-primary teachers, it added.

Though the total requirement of pre-primary teachers stands at 12,000, the fiscal situation prevented the Finance department from approving full recruitment, the chief minister said.

All efforts would be made to complete the remaining recruitment at the earliest, he added.

The annual financial implication for the first three years till these 8,393 teachers are under probation will be Rs 103.73 crore, which will go up to Rs 374.20 crore once the probation period is over.

The Cabinet also approved rules for governing the conduct of business of the Punjab State Police Complaints Authority, 2020, set up earlier this year to probe allegations of serious misconduct against police officers of the rank of senior superintendent of police/deputy commissioner of police and above.

The State Police Complaints Authority was constituted in January.

In another decision, the Cabinet gave its approval to rename the government medical college in Kapurthala as Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji State Institute of Medical Sciences and the Government Medical College, Hoshiarpur, as Shaheed Udham Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences.