PUNJAB Cabinet has decided to grant a major relief to the male and female students under which students in uniform would be provided free travel facility on the Orange Train and Metro Bus. In its meeting under the chairmanship of caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, it also approved the new amended Rock Salt Policy of Punjab to ensure transparency in issuance of mining licenses, vowed to conserve energy, move towards paperless governance and introduce special package to provide maximum relief to people during Ramzan.
Transport fares have multiplied in recent months due to increase in the prices of POL products and also because of lack of proper oversight by the respective transport departments and regional transport authorities. These have impacted every segment of the population but more so on parents who were forced to divert more resources for the journey of their children studying in educational institutions away from their homes. It is a landmark decision to offer free of cost travel to uniformed students as it would help save amounts that families would be able to spend on other necessities. We hope misuse of the facility would be avoided and feeder services for metro bus and orange line train (with free travel facility for students) would be introduced on more routes to ensure relief to the maximum number of families. As for salt mines, these are national assets and the Punjab Government has done well by taking measures to check irregularities and illegalities in their exploitation. We would also urge the Chief Minister to activate ACs, DCs and Commissioners as they can contribute a lot in checking artificial price-hike and shortage of commodities.
