Chandigarh, Aug 5 (IANS) The Punjab Cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Wednesday took decisions aimed at strengthening education, improving governance and public service delivery, and promoting inclusive development across the state.
The Cabinet passed the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to regulate unnecessary and unreasonable fee hikes by private unaided educational institutions, besides approving the Punjab State Outsourced Personnel Transition to Contractual Engagement Bill, 2026, establishment of three new Digital Open Universities, and several other policy initiatives.
On the decisions, the Chief Minister’s Office said the Cabinet gave nod to bring the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill for regulation of unnecessary and unreasonable increase in fee by private unaided educational institutions.
The Bill has been necessitated as some unaided private educational institutions were arbitrarily and unreasonably increasing their annual fees, which was imposing unnecessary financial burden on students and their parents.
So, a need has been felt to amend the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, 2016, the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Amendment Act, 2019, and the Rules framed under the Act to check unjustified fee hikes by private unaided schools.
The Cabinet also gave approval to place the Punjab State Outsourced Personnel Transition to Contractual Engagement Bill of 2026 for the transition of eligible outsourced personnel into direct contractual engagement after a qualifying five years of continuous service, or three years in the case of personnel deployed in the enumerated hazardous categories under Section 2(1).
The remuneration of contractual appointees will be determined by the Department of Finance and will not be lower than the minimum rate of wages fixed under the Code on Wages, 2019, or any other law relating to minimum wages for the time being in force. The Bill repeals the Punjab Ad Hoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Act, 2016, from the date of its enactment.
–IANS
vg/vd
