Cabinet approves new law on land acquisition(The Hindu,)

New legislation to replace the controversial GO 123 and incorporate directions of the High Court : The Telangana government has decided to bring in a law on land acquisition within the purview of the Land Acquisition Act 2013, enacted by Parliament to replace the controversial GO 123 and subsequent orders by incorporating the directions of High Court. By enacting the new law in place of the land acquisition policy introduced in the form of GO 123, the State government hopes to speed up acquisition/procurement of land for irrigation, industrial and other development projects. The decision to enact a law during the winter session of the Legislature commencing on December 16 was taken by the Council of Ministers that met here on Saturday. This apart, sources said, the Cabinet has given its nod for replacing six other ordinances issued in the recent past with necessary Acts, including on setting up of a Backward Classes Commission, establishing Police Commissionerates at Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Siddipet and Ramagundam, reorganisation of districts, transfer of cases pertaining to Telangana to High Court after opting out of Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, and others. Cabinet Sub-Committee report discussed The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao discussed at length the Cabinet Sub-Committee report on the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal verdict on limiting the purview of Section 89 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act only to Telangana and AP for the purpose of sharing river waters and decided to move the Supreme Court to appeal against the Tribunal judgement. Further, the Cabinet is understood to have decided to allow establishment of private universities and to make Telangana a cashless financial transactions State by implementing it in the government first. Two Cabinet Sub-Committees led by Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and IT and Industries Minister K. Taraka Rama Rao, respectively, would formulate the guidelines on the two issues. The panel on private universities would comprise Ministers K. Taraka Rama Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, G. Jagadish Reddy and Jogu Ramanna with Chief Advisor to State government Rajiv Sharma, who relinquished office as Chief Secretary recently on attaining the age of superannuation, as its Advisor. Similarly, the sub-committee on cashless transactions would consist of G. Jagadish Reddy, P. Mahender Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao and Etala Rajender. It is stated that the panel on cashless transactions would suggest ways for making all government transactions including receipts and payments online. It was further decided to implement cashless transactions in TSRTC as early as possible by providing the conductors with PoS hand-held devices for issuance of tickets.