Punjab govt to exempt loan recovery from heirs of deceased SC

Punjab government has decided to write off the recovery of loan outstanding from legal heirs of deceased Scheduled Castes beneficiaries, disbursed by Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and Finance Corporation.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today made an announcement to this effect on the floor of the Assembly.
Akali MLAs Nirmal Singh and Iqbal Singh Jhundan raise a demand for it through the calling attention notice that was further supported by other members of treasury benches as well as the Opposition legislators.
The amount pending for recovery towards 911 deceased beneficiaries was around Rs 2.52 crores, Badal said.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Education department will establish a separate Directorate of Sports that would implement the State Sports Policy-2010 in educational institutes.

This was informed by Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka in reply to a question raised by Jalandhar MLA Pargat Singh during the question hour.

Giving a detailed reply to the MLA's query focused on the implementation of the sports policy, the Minister apprised the House about series of steps being taken by the department, including the opening of 16 sports wings of which nine for rural students, organising events to promote traditional games, introducing 15-25 grace marks depending purely on the students sports calibre.
Further, the House was also informed about creation of a Rs 10 crore corpus for upgrading sports infrastructure in educational institutions this year.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, in reply to a query posed by SAD MLA Pargat Singh, announced that all security personnel deployed with the VVIPs while accompanying them on official duties would now onwards be provided with basic facilities, which were otherwise lacking.
Sukhbir mentioned that the Home department had also issued suitable instructions to all districts to ensure the compliance of the orders.