Punjab cabinet mourns death of Jaspal Bhatti, Yash Chopra

The Punjab cabinet on Thursday mourned the death of comedian Jaspal Bhatti and legendary film producer-director Yash Chopra.

The meeting chaired by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal also condoled the death of former MLA Malkiat Singh Keetu and veteran BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra, an official spokesperson said.

It described Bhatti as a multi-faceted personality and true son of soil, who through his rare sarcastic humour and wit made enormous contribution in sensitising the general public especially at the grassroots level in eradicating social evils.
The meeting felt that in the death of Bhatti, a void has been created in the Punjabi film industry, televison and print media which was hard to be filled.

Bhatti, 57, died in a road accident near Jalandhar on October 25.
The Cabinet also condoled the death of renowned film producer, director and writer Yash Chopra.

Recalling his contribution to Hindi film industry, the Cabinet said through his creative genius Chopra always portrayed Punjabi culture in his films, thereby championing the cause of ‘Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat’. The 80-year-old Bollywood director died due to dengue in a Mumbai hospital on October 21.

The death of former Barnala MLA Malkiat Singh Keetu was condoled by the Cabinet which described him as a disciplined soldier of the party and votary of the downtrodden and oppressed sections of the society.

Expressing grief over the demise of veteran BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra, the Cabinet recalled the outstanding services rendered by him as Governor of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Winter session

The brief winter session of the Punjab Assembly will begin on December 17 and conclude on December 21, as per the schedule approved at a state cabinet meeting.

Meeting was chaired by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, an official spokesman said here. To check the menace of female foeticide, provide quality education to girls and give financial assistance to poor families in bringing up the girl child, the cabinet gave a nod to the work plan for 2012-13 to implement the proposed ‘Bebe Nanki Ladli Beti Kalyan Scheme’.

The scheme, which was a part of ‘measures to improve sex ratio’ under the 13th Finance Commission, would benefit the families having an annual income below Rs 30,000 or those covered under the Atta Dal scheme of the state government.

It would be applicable to the girls born in the state after January 1, 2011. Besides, the scheme would be applicable to all the orphan girls found in the state after January 1, 2011.

Under the scheme, Rs 51.75 crore would be spent in 2012-13 to deposit Rs 20,000 each in Life Insurance Corporation for 25,875 beneficiaries.

The cabinet also approved the policy guidelines and building norms for the regularisation of old as well as new marriage palaces in the state.

The regularisation of the existing marriage places would be permissible up to December 31, 2012 on payment of rationalised charges and no application would be entertained after December 20, 2012 for this purpose, the spokesperson said.
Under the policy, regularisation of the new marriage palaces would be recommended by the district level committee.

The policy has regulated the procedure and the entire state has been divided into seven zones for levying the Change of Land Use (CLU), the spokesman added.