Punjab assembly passes seven bills on concluding day of special session

The assembly also passed another important Bill aimed at the allotment of up to five acres of state government land, under the possession and cultivation of landless or marginal farmers for over ten years, to them on a reasonable, pre-determined price. This Bill, entitled Punjab (Welfare and Settlement of Landless, Marginal and Small Occupant Farmers) Allotment of State Government Land Bill, 2020, was piloted by Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar.

The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday passed seven bills, including the one to set up a vigilance commission in the state on the lines of Central Vigilance Commission. On the concluding day of the three-day assembly session, convened to pass Punjab's own Bills to negate the effect of the Centre’s farming laws, the House passed the Punjab State Vigilance Commission Bill, 2020, besides six other bills.

The Bill aimed at setting a state vigilance commission on the lines of CVC to bring more transparency and curbing corruption among state's public servants was piloted by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The assembly also passed another important Bill aimed at the allotment of up to five acres of state government land, under the possession and cultivation of landless or marginal farmers for over ten years, to them on a reasonable, pre-determined price.

This Bill, entitled Punjab (Welfare and Settlement of Landless, Marginal and Small Occupant Farmers) Allotment of State Government Land Bill, 2020, was piloted by Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar. The assembly also passed another bill for the grant of land ownership to slum dwellers and specified categories of people, who are in occupation of small parcels of agrarian land through inheritance.

This Bill, entitled the Punjab Bhondedar, Butemar, Dohlidar, Insar Miadi, Mukarraridar, Mundhimar, Panahi Qadeem, Saunjidar or Taraddadkar (Vesting of Proprietary Rights) Bill, 2020” too was piloted by Kangar. The Bill piloted by the chief minister envisages setting up of a Punjab State Vigilance Commission as an independent body to exercise an effective superintendence over the functioning of Vigilance Bureau and all departments to provide a clean, fair and transparent administration. The Bill also empowers the Commission to probe into various allegations of corruption and other relevant offences against public servants.

As per the provisions of the Bill, the Commission would be headed by a chief vigilance commissioner and comprise two vigilance commissioners and other officials and infrastructure to assist it. The Bill provides for the appointment of the Commission’s commissioners by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee comprising the chief minister as its chairman and Vidhan Sabha speaker and the senior-most state Cabinet minister as its members.

Piloting the Bill aimed at the allotment of up to five acres of land under the possession and cultivation of landless or marginal farmers, Revenue Minister Kangar told the House that this farmer-friendly law would go a long way toward settling pending litigations on this count. He said any landless, marginal or small farmer in cultivating possession and occupation of land for a period of more than ten years, would be eligible for the allotment of government land not exceeding five acres.

The price payable by an eligible applicant for the allotment of the land shall be determined on the basis of the rate fixed by the collector of the area. As per the Bill, up to 2.5 acres, the rate of allotment would be shall 50 per cent of the Collector's rate while for the allotment of land above 2.5 acres and up to 5 acres, it shall be 65 per cent of the collector rate.

However, for landless categories of farmers from the Scheduled Caste as well as the general category, the allotment price would be 30 per cent of the collector rate up to 2.5 acres of land and 40 per cent of the collector rate above 2.5 acres of land. About the bill for the grant of proprietary rights to slum dwellers and specified categories of people, who are in occupation of small parcels of agrarian land through inheritance for not less than 20 years, the minister said this move was part of the agrarian reforms initiated by Amarinder Singh's government to empower tillers of such land. Besides the above Bills, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal moved “The Punjab Tissue Culture Based Seed Potato Bill, 2020'.

This Bill aims at boosting potato farmers' income by allowing the production of quality seed potato through tissue culture-based technology, using net house facilities. The other bills passed were the Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Factories (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020.

The House was later adjourned sine die by the Speaker.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)