Chandigarh, Dec. 21 -- The Punjab cabinet on Saturday gave nod to amend the Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Act, 2021, to reduce the time limit for filing objections and appeals under the 'Mera Ghar Mere Naam' scheme. The 'Mera Ghar Mera Naam' scheme aims to bestow property rights to people who are living in houses that are situated within the Lal Dora of villages and cities. 'Lal Dora' refers to land that is part of the village 'abadi' (habitation) and is used for non-agricultural purposes only. The cabinet, in its meeting under the chairmanship of chief minister Bhagwant Mann, gave consent to amend Section 11 of the Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Act, 2021, to replace the specific time periods with "within time notified by the government", in order to reduce the period for filing objections and their disposal from the existing 90 and 60 days respectively to 30 days each. Similarly, it was decided to amend Section 12(4) of the Act, to reduce the period for disposal of appeals from 60 days to 30 days, an official spokesperson said. In another decision, the cabinet approved an amendment to the Industrial and Business Development Policy (IBDP) 2022, which replaces the requirement to provide a bank guarantee (BG) for availing fiscal incentives. The decision follows numerous representations from industry associations highlighting that the existing bank guarantee requirements were blocking substantial amounts of working capital. This liquidity crunch was identified as a major hurdle, limiting the funds available for industrial expansion, research and development, and job creation. Under the recent amendment, for availing the incentive of exemption of stamp duty, the condition of bank guarantee shall be replaced with the first charge valid up to the date of commencement of commercial production, on the property for which the incentive has been availed. Further, for the incentive of CLU/EDC exemption, a robust mechanism has been introduced in place of bank guarantee. The amendment will be applicable from the effective date of the policy, which is October 17, 2022. The cabinet also gave a go-ahead to the redistribution of 253 acres of land of Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda to the department of housing and urban development. Now, 10 acres will be used for battery energy storage system installation, 10 acres for a new bus stand shall be retained by the Bathinda development authority, and 20 acres shall be retained by the department of housing and urban development for residential and commercial purposes The cabinet also gave its concurrence to amend Rule 3 and 16 (1) of the Punjab Management and Transfer of Municipal Properties Rules, 2021, for the modification of the payment schedule for high-value properties, defined herein as "chunk sites," to be sold or transferred by the municipalities and urban local bodies. A spokesperson said this will pave the way for competitive bidding and attract significant investments in urban and development. Further, it shall increase market competition by increasing the pool of eligible bidders, he said....