Punjab Cabinet approves land for medical college to be set up by Jain community

The Cabinet decided that the trust should start the functioning of hospitals at the earliest and within five years from the date of execution or commencement of the memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The medical college would be established and operationalised with a hospital having at least 220 beds and an intake capacity of 50 MBBS seats. It will be further expanded within eight years to a hospital with at least 400 beds and an intake capacity of 100 MBBS seats.

In another decisions, the Cabinet gave nod for adjustment of the staff members of Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology against the vacant posts available in the department of technical education & industrial training and autonomous institutions under the department on deputation.

Amnesty extended for plot allottees

In a relief to the plot allottees, the Cabinet approved the extension of the Amnesty Policy 2025 for allotted and auctioned plots under various schemes of the Housing and Urban Development Department. This will allow the defaulting allottees of the Special Development Authority to apply once again under the policy before the new cutoff date of March 31, 2026 and deposit the requisite amount within three months of approval. Interested allottees will have to submit their applications before the March 31 deadline.

GMADA property prices

The Cabinet also gave green signal to a reduction in prices of various GMADA properties based on recommendations of independent evaluators. The government has amended the guidelines for e-auctions to revise the method for fixing reserve prices of residential, commercial, institutional and industrial plots. Development authorities will now appoint three independent valuers empanelled by nationalized banks or the Income Tax Department to assess the rates of such sites. For sites that fail to attract buyers in the two or more auctions, the average of the rates submitted by these valuers will be used to determine the reserve price, subject to approval by the competent authority.

Desilting of Sutlej

The Cabinet also approved allowing the National Highways Authority of India or its agencies to carry out the desiltating work in the Sutlej river at sites allotted by the Department of Water Resources at a rate of Rs 3 per cubic foot. The approval comes with the further condition that the above said price shall be available to NHAI or its contractors/agencies only till June 30, 2026 for providing simple earth to NHAI for construction of highway project from Ludhiana to Ropar. Nod was also granted exemption from the provisions of Section 63 of the Punjab Transparency in Public Procurement Act 2019.