Chandigarh Dec 17 PTI The Punjab cabinet on Friday gave approval to regularise services of 1925 assistant professors in the government-aided colleges of the state A decision to this effect was taken during the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi here Friday evening according to an official release The cabinet had earlier approved filling up of 1925 vacant posts of assistant professors in the grant-in-aid colleges in a phased manner at a salary of basic pay plus grade pay on contract for three years Subsequently their cases were considered for regularisation based on evaluation of their work by the committees formed for this purpose On completion of three years of the service of these assistant professors their work and performance has been evaluated by the notified evaluation committees and it has been recommended to be regularized the release said The cabinet also gave approval for setting up two new government degree colleges in Jalandhar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts According to this decision a new degree college named Kanshi Ram Government College will be opened at Adampur Jalandhar and another at village Sarhala Ranuwan in Banga SBS Nagar PTI CHS VSD VN VN

Chandigarh Dec 17 PTI Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday promised to launch an urban employment guarantee mission to provide the right to jobs to urban labour in the state if his party returns to power Noting that urban poverty in Punjab was double the rural poverty he said the employment guarantee scheme will also cover unskilled labour The Punjab model will launch an urban employment guarantee mission right to employment for urban labour Sidhu told reporters It is like MGNREGA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in urban areas he said while dubbing this mission as radical and revolutionary of his Punjab model of governance According to Sidhu less than one per cent of daily wager labourers and construction workers among others have registered themselves as beneficiaries of various government schemes He said he met some labourers at Madanpura Chowk in Mohali earlier in the day and asked them how many of them were registered for availing benefits of government schemes Of the 150 daily labourers only one hand was raised I asked how many of them had labour cards to which they said officials demanded money he said You cannot give benefits of government schemes if you do not know who the recipient is he said Sidhu pointed out hardships faced by the daily-wagers in the wake of rising cost of essential commodities The Punjab assembly polls are due early next year PTI CHS VSD CJ CJ