A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Council of Ministers held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal this evening.

Chief Minister's media adviser Harcharan Bains said Punjab would be the fifth state in the country to enact the SEZ Act after Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. The Council of Ministers also approved a tentative draft of Punjab Special Economic Zone Bill, 2009, to be placed before the Vidhan Sabha in the Budget session.

A grant of Rs 3.59 crore was approved for compensation to the owners of the properties/vehicles who suffered loss during violence in the wake of the assassination of Sant Ramanand of Dera Sach Khand, Ballan, in Vienna (Austria). The payment of compensation would be made a `one-time measure' and not become a precedent. Besides damage to private property in districts, damage to central government's property worth Rs 26.20 crore and state government properties worth Rs 2.42 crore had also been reported.

The Council also approved the regularisation of 42 lecturers/fashion designers/programmers working on a contract basis in the Technical Education Department with immediate effect. These incumbents would also be entitled to pensionery benefits from the date of regularisation.