Chandigarh, Dec. 23 -- The assembly cleared eight Bills after discussions on Monday. Among them was the Haryana Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill that is for increasing the daily working hours of shop employees from nine to 10 hours while retaining the overall weekly limit of 48 hours. The Bills passed are Haryana Appropriation Bill; Haryana Technical Education Guest Faculty (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2025; Haryana Housing Board (Amendment) Bill, 2025; Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2025; Haryana Abadi Deh (Vesting, Recording and Resolving of Ownership Rights) Bill, 2025; Haryana Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and Haryana Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025. The Haryana Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill proposes to cover establishments employing 20 or more workers. The daily working hours will be increased from nine to 10 hours while retaining the overall weekly limit of 48 hours. The permissible limit of overtime work per quarter will be increased from 50 hours to 156 hours, while the maximum period of continuous work without rest stands increased from five to six hours. The amendments seek to enhance operational flexibility, etc, the government said. It paves the way for the appointment of administration in case of extraordinary circumstances. It has been noticed that some universities have started new courses, increased existing intake and changed the nomenclature of the course without the prior approval of the state government by misusing the Sub-Section (3) of Section 34A, the spokesperson said. There is a provision of penalty if a university is found not maintaining standards. The government can undertake stopping of admissions or impose a penalty of minimum Rs.10 lakh and maximum of Rs.1 crore or start dissolution of the university in a phased manner. The Haryana Technical Education guest faculty (Security of Service) Act, 2024 was notified on January 16, 2025. In this Act, the benefit of security of service is admissible to those guest faculty members, who fulfil five years of service on or before August 15, 2024. The guest faculties had requested an amendment regarding the counting of 240 days during a year of their service instead of calendar year. The spokesperson said they pointed out that otherwise, their service during the first calendar year of joining will not be counted if their date of joining is between May and December. Similarly, the current calendar year of 2024 will also not be counted, because the number of days from January 1 to the cut-off date (August 15) are only 227 days. So the amendments were introduced, spokesperson said. The Bill was introduced to reduce 164 minor criminal provisions in 42 state Acts across 17 departments by removing obsolete and redundant clauses, introducing civil penalties and administrative actions for minor technical and procedural lapses, and decriminalising minor and technical offences through the elimination of penal provisions....