Cooperatives Bank to be restructured, says minister

LAHORE:Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Cooperatives Raja Basharat has said that Punjab Provincial Cooperatives Bank (PPCB) would be restructured and made an active institution for the betterment of agriculture and farmers.

He was presiding over a meeting in this regard at the head office of the bank here Thursday. The secretary Cooperatives and PPCB President delivered a briefing on present status and future prospects. The briefing stated that the PPCB Board of Governors had not been functional since 2005 while the bank comprised of 150 branches in urban and rural areas across the province.

Raja Basharat directed that other important issues, including reconstitution of the board and recruitment on vacant posts should be completed within three months. He said that as per the instructions of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the bank would be made fully operational and its closed branches would be reopened.

The minister said that amendments would be made to the existing policies and laws of the bank to make it useful for the consumers. He directed that the process of transparent auction of properties belonging and attached to the bank should be started immediately and a regular report of the action taken should be sent to him.

labour dept reforms: Punjab Minister for Industries and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal presided over a meeting to review the performance of labour and human resource department.

The meeting was held at committee room of the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade. Provincial Minister for Labour Ansar Majeed Khan, Secretary Labour Javed Ahmed Qazi, Head of the Monitoring Unit Fazeel Abbas and other officers concerned attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the process of reforms, future action plan and steps to enhance the capability of the department. Secretary Labour briefed about the organisational structure and modern reforms brought in the institution. Addressing the meeting, Provincial Minister for Industries and Trade said that registration of all workers was very important for authentic data; therefore, special attention should be paid to their registration. He said that self-assessment scheme would be introduced for the workers’ registration and for this purpose a meeting would be held with the chambers of commerce and industry across the province. He said that the mechanism should also be prepared for the registration of shop-workers and work on inspector-less-regime should be expedited. He said that in order to provide better medical facilities to workers in social security hospital the affairs of these hospitals have to be made better. Aslam Iqbal said that business process was being facilitated by eliminating outdated and unnecessary regulations in all departments. He said the goals of industrialisation and investment could be achieved only by facilitating business activities.

Provincial Minister for Labour Ansar Majeed Khan said that the department of Labour and Human Resource would bring such a system through reforms that no government could change it. The protection of their rights is the government’s first priority and all necessary steps will be taken for this purpose, he added.