Punjab Cabinet nod to ordinance for regulation of school fees

To curb the practice of charging excessive fees from students, the Punjab Cabinet today gave its nod to an ordinance for regulation of fees of unaided educational institutes in the state.
A decision to promulgate the Punjab Regulation of Fees of Unaided Education Institutions Ordinance, 2016 was taken in the meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here this evening.
A spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said this decision has been taken in view of the proposal mooted by the education department to constitute a regulatory authority, mechanism for the purpose of regulating fees of unaided schools in the state.

To facilitate people paying obeisance at Takhat Sri Patna Sahib in Bihar on 350th Parkash Utsav of Tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, the Cabinet gave approval to run 10 special trains and 200 buses for pilgrimage to the birth place of the Sikh Guru free of cost.
The state government had earlier launched a scheme -- Chief Minister Tirath Darshan Yatra -- to undertake pilgrimage for the people of state at free of cost to Sri Nanded Sahib (Maharashtra), Varanasi, Ajmer Sharif and Chennai.
Besides, the state government had launched another such scheme to run buses free of cost to enable the people visit holy places in Salasar (Rajasthan), Mata Chintpurni (Himachal Pradesh), Mata Vaishno Devi (Katra).

Free buses are also being run from all small towns and villages to enable the people to pay obeisance at Sri Harmandar Sahib (Amritsar) and Takhat Sri Keshgarh Sahib (Sri Anandpur Sahib), said the spokesperson.
The Cabinet also accorded its approval to acquire 40 acre 5 kanal 14 marla of land in village Kandola of tehsil Adampur in Jalandhar district at a cost of Rs 16 crore and transfer the same to the Airports Authority of India for construction of Civil Air Terminal at Indian Air Force Station, Adampur.
Conceding the demand of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), the Cabinet approved granting concessions to the sector thereby allowing payment of dues by a developer in six quarterly installments starting from January 1, 2018 which is after the lapse of moratorium period till December 31, 2017.