Telangana Govt Tables 5 Ordinances in Winter Assembly Session

Hyderabad: The state government tabled five Bills on the first day of the Winter Session of Legislative Assembly on Monday to replace ordinances that had amended laws with regard to merger of villages into the HMDA area, appointment of MLAs as government advisers, giving more powers to HYDRAA and penalties under the GST Act.

The Assembly is expected to approve these Bills next week.

The Panchayat Raj Act, 2018 is being amended to merge 51 gram panchayats in municipalities on Hyderabad outskirts within Outer Ring Road (ORR), overlapping the ORR and outside the ORR of Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts.

These villages are being merged to develop the ‘Master Plan 2050’ for the HMDA area up to Regional Ring Road (RRR) to unleash the growth potential of Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR). Further, it is proposed to establish a common urban governance structure for this area.

The Municipalities Act, 2019 is being amended to facilitate these mergers.

The GHMC Act, 1955 is being amended to give more powers to HYDRAA. This amendment facilitates the state government to empower any officer agency or authority like HYDRAA to exercise any of the powers of the GHMC and the GHMC commissioner vested to protect public assets like roads, drains, public streets, water bodies, open spaces, public parks etc and preserve them from any kind of illegal encroachments.

The Payment of Salaries, Pension and Removal of Disqualifications Act, is being amended to exclude "the offices of advisers to state government" from the purview of the Disqualification Act, 1953 enabling MLAs to hold state government adviser posts.

The state government had appointed BRS MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy as adviser on agriculture on August 20 this year, after he defected to the Congress. As per the existing Act, MLAs are not eligible to hold government adviser posts.

The Telangana GST Tax Act is being amended to waive the penalty and interest of taxpayers for three years from 2017 to 2020. The initial period of implementation of GST from 2017 was marked by significant changes, frequent amendments and evolving compliance mechanisms/ Therefore, the taxpayers were issued with demand orders for payment of tax, interest and penalty for non-compliance with the provisions of the GST Act.