Punjab Government has decided to follow the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) pattern to increase the number of chances for Punjab Civil Services (PCS) aspirants from existing four to six in the general category and to nine for Backward Classes, while the SC category students will get unlimited chances.
While the age limit for SC category will be 42 years, for General and BC/OBC categories, it would be 37 and 40 years respectively, as per the Central Commission’s rules, announced the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday while replying to a question raised by Congress MLA Lakhvir Singh Lakha regarding increasing the chances available to the candidates to appear in PCS exam.
The Chief Minister said that the Government had already been working on the changes for the past several weeks.
As per the existing Punjab Civil Service (Appointment by Combined Competitive Examination) Rules, 2009, the candidates of all categories had four chances to appear in PCS (Executive Branch) examination, said the Chief Minister.
He said that before implementation of Punjab Civil Service (Appointment by Combined Competitive Examination) Rules, 2009, there was no limit on the chances to appear in the said examination for all categories.
CHECK EXORBITANT RATES OF FOOD ITEMS IN MULTIPLEXES, MALLS: MLA
As the Congress MLA from Jalandhar Central Rajinder Beri pressed for checking the exorbitant rates of eatables inside the multiplexes and malls, the state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu assured the House to act as per the decision by the Apex Court which is already hearing several matters in this regard.
Beri, during the question hour, urged the State Government to enact a law on the lines of one formulated by the Maharashtra Government to stop the malls and mulitiplexes in the state from “robbing” and "fleecing" the people.
“Whenever a family goes to watch a movie in a mall or a multiplex, they are asked to buy a coupon for purchasing any food item and their rates are exorbitant in comparison to the prices outside,” said Beri adding that a water bottle is sold at Rs 100 as against the price of Rs 15 or 20 while a soft drink bottle is sold at Rs 200 despite its maximum retail price being Rs 30 or so.
He added that the people, at times, were even embarrassed by the bouncers.
Talking of the Maharashtra law on the issue, Beri told the assembly that the western state has a law to keep a check on this practice saying that it has a law to revoke the multiplexes’ diktats, banning outside foods into cinema halls and their overpricing of eatables by them and urged the Government to enact a similar law in Punjab.
Ashu said that as per official records, the State Government was not in the knowledge of any such law in Maharashtra. “There is no provision under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and rules made there under to allow or disallow any outside food item inside multiplexes or private cinemas or to fix or regulate prices of food items sold inside multiplexes and private cinemas,” he said.
He said that there was no proposal under consideration of the State Government for framing any law or rule on the issue and the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, accords no such power to the government.
Hinting at the difficulty in bringing a regulation as per the MLA’s demand, the minister said food items are sold in unpackaged form in multiplexes and cinema halls.
“Only those food items which are sold in packaged form and mention a maximum retail price can be checked,” said the Minister, adding they have to display prices of unpackaged items as per the Punjab Commodities Price Marking and Display order, 1972, which is the only way to check them,.
The minister further said as far as the Maharashtra law is concerned, it has been stayed by the Supreme Court, which has also clubbed other similar pleas. “We would act as per the SC decision,” he said.
