Karnataka Cabinet approves re-promulgation of ordinances on APMC, land reforms, labour

The Cabinet on Thursday is learnt to have approved the re-promulgation of three ordinances - APMC, land reforms and labour laws - as their Bills were not cleared in the recent legislature session.

The ordinance on Industrial Disputes and Certain Other Laws (Karnataka Amendment), which relaxes some labour-related laws, will be promulgated once again after its Bill was defeated in the Legislative Council last week.

The Karnataka Land Reforms (Second) Amendment ordinance that liberalises agricultural landholdings and the Karnataka Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) ordinance that frees up agricultural trading will be re-promulgated after their Bills were not adopted in the Council despite passage in the Legislative Assembly.

The ordinances will be re-promulgated as amendments effected by them, if not passed in the form of Bills by both Assembly and Council, will lapse six weeks after the adjournment of a legislature session.

The Cabinet is also said to have approved the creation of the Maulana Azad Trust, with a corpus of Rs 25 crore, for educating backward Muslims.

According to sources, the Cabinet favoured two schemes aimed at construction labourers - procurement and distribution of safety kits to 90,000 workers at a cost of Rs 42.39 crore, and mason tool kits for 76,000 workers costing Rs 23.18 crore. Totally, these two kits will be given to 1.66 lakh workers registered with the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

The Cabinet also discussed providing 8,980 tool kits free to SC/ST students enrolled in industrial training institutes at a cost of Rs 11.75 crore.

In other decisions, the Cabinet is said to have approved the revised estimate of Rs 98.93 crore for the construction of the Dr Jagjivan Ram Research and Training Centre on the premises of the homeless welfare centre on Magadi Road in Bengaluru, Rs 63 crore for the development of the gold mine at Devadurg taluk in Raichur, administrative approval for development works costing Rs 23.98 crore in Ramatirtha Nagar Layout in Belagavi, upgrading the Bableshwar gram panchayat to a town panchayat and extension of the concession in the concession agreement with the Bengaluru International Airport Ltd.

There was no customary press briefing due to the election model code of conduct that is in effect.