With an eye fixed on the Gujarat meeting elections, the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party authorities on Friday notified the implementation of the outdated pension scheme (OPS) in Punjab.

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“OPS has been approved by the cabinet today. Its implementation will bring huge benefits to the employees. Notification of OPS has been done,” Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann introduced at a press convention on the secretariat.

Punjab is the fourth state after Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan to implement OPS.

An in-principle approval to implement OPS in Punjab had already been given by the cupboard on October 21.

The authorities’s transfer is being seen as a bid to attain brownie factors within the Aam Aadmi Party’s marketing campaign within the meeting elections in Gujarat, the place the AAP is making a determined bid to increase its base.

Once applied, the transfer is more likely to profit round 1.6 lakh Punjab authorities workers, who joined service after 2004, based on state worker union leaders.

“Details about the implementation of OPS will be shared with the media later in the day,” Mann mentioned.

Sugarcane to be procured at 380 a quintal

The cupboard additionally gave its nod to obtain sugarcane on the charge of 380 a quintal. “This charge is highest within the nation. It’s for the primary time that every one pending funds for the final season are being cleared. Crushing of sugarcane within the sugar mills will begin from November 20,” Mann said.

Vacancies of 645 lecturers to be filled

In another decision, the cabinet approved the filling of vacancies of 645 lecturers in government colleges.

It decided to fill 16 posts of principal in the government colleges by increasing their minimum qualifying age from 45 to 54 years.

Dharna has become ‘riwaaj’ for farmers: CM

The chief minister took on farmer unions for holding dharnas (protests) against his government despite it taking “historic choices” for their welfare over the past seven months.

“It has become a tradition in recent times that one dharna is done for raising a demand, another for meeting the administration and yet another for the notification of the demands. It appears that dharna has become a ‘riwaaj’,” mentioned Mann.

He appealed to farmer unions to not resort to dharnas so continuously because it inconveniences the widespread man.