Cabinet approval for advisory committee on land denotification

The State Cabinet on Thursday decided to constitute an advisory committee to examine and make appropriate recommendation to the State government on proposals seeking denotification of lands under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.

The Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, decided to set up the committee under Section 93(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The committee will be headed by the Additional Chief Secretary. The government did not brief the media about decisions taken in the Cabinet in view of the model code of conduct for elections to the Legislative Council polls.

The government recently gave effect to the 2013 Act by notifying the rules. Certain provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 Act used to be applicable for the State government enactments for land acquisitions such as the KIADB Act and the BDA Act.

Those provisions were replaced with that of the 2013 Act. Hitherto, the advisory committee was functioning under the 1894 Act, sources in the government said.

Cricket stadium in Kodagu

Besides, the Cabinet granted government lands to three different organisations, including the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), Bengaluru, at Hodduru village in Kodagu district for constructing a cricket stadium.

The KSCA has been granted 12.70 acres on a lease basis. The Mahatma Gandhi Smaraka Trust has been granted 10 acres to build Gandhi Grama in Mandya taluk.

The Wish Wind Company has been granted 67 acres at Jagalur taluk in Davangere district for implementing wind energy project on a lease basis, sources said.

Recruitment process

The Cabinet also decided to re-do the recruitment process done in 2005 for filling up backlog vacancies under the category of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for the posts of assistant and junior engineers under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department, Water Resources department and PWD, as per the Supreme Court order.

The apex court has ordered that the recruitment be done under the 2001 rules for filling up backlog vacancies, the sources added.

The apex court had quashed the then government’s decision in 2005 to regularise the service of the contract employees under special regularisation and absorption rules.

Only those employees who were senior in age were given preference for regularisation. Those who were younger challenged the decision in court.

The Supreme Court has directed that all 1,374 contract employees appointed in 2003-03 be regularised as per the 2001 rules, the sources said.

Other decisions

 To dismiss govt medical doctor Dr G V Sandhya at PHC, Koratagere, Tumakuru, from service.
 Defers taking a decision on providing input subsidy to farmers affected by drought.
 Declare Hangal taluk in Haveri district as drought affected.