2012 & 2013 Two years to be devoted to education sector Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday gave approval to filling up all the vacant posts of the teachers in schools and colleges in the state. At a review meeting of school and higher education departments,the chief minister directed principal secretary (Higher Education) and secretary (School Education) to immediately initiate the process of recruitment so that these teachers could be appointed at the earliest. He called upon the officers to ensure the recruitment process in a transparent and fair manner to attract the best available talent. Badal also asked the secretary (School Education) to look into the viability of establishing the state level teachers recruitment board for the selection of teachers in the state to cope up with the task of recruiting almost 10,000 to 12,000 teachers,who retire every year. Badal directed the two officials to conduct the recruitment drives every year so that there is no pending vacancy. and declared that the year 2012 and 2013 would be exclusively devoted to the overall development of government schools and higher education institutions in order to help Punjab emerge as a front runner state on the educational front in the country. He also asked DPI (Colleges) to fill all the vacant posts of principals in the colleges at the earliest. It was also decided that transfers of teachers in all the government schools should be brought into effect from April 10 to May 10 so that all the teachers take up their new assignments well before the start of new academic session. With a view to ensuring continuity of the teachers till the completion of academic session,it was decided to retire them only twice a year March 31 and September 30 irrespective of their date of superannuation. 3 central jails,1 district jail tobe set up The government has decided to construct three central jails at Bathinda,Amritsar and Ferozepur besides a district jail at Muktsar at a cost of Rs 200 crore. While the central jails would be set up in an area of 70 acres each,the district jail will encompass an area of 25 acres. Land approved for martyrs memorial at Kartarpur The chief minister also approved 20 acres for setting up Freedom Martyrs Memorial at Kartarpur on Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway. Campaign for early cancer detection on cards The state government will soon launch an awareness campaign for early detection of cancer. This was decided at a meeting between the chief minister and senior officers of the Health Department. Badal said that till date the state government has sanctioned about Rs 23 crore for the treatment of 2020 cancer patents in the state but there were still large number of cancer patients in Punjab that are never reported. It is the need of the hour to make people aware by launching an awareness drive through mass media various symptoms of diseases like cancer,hepatitis,diabetes, he said.
