The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed nine Bills on Monday, with the AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) (Amendment) Bill, 2023, being the key one.
This Bill facilitates the grant of permissions to the original assignees/his or her legal heirs to alienate the assigned lands after a period of 20 years from the date of assignment as per the prescribed procedure without referring the same to the government. It was stated that in case the adjoining lands are earmarked in the master plan for purposes other than agriculture, the assignees will be paid on par with the current basic value of the lands by the purchasers.
The Bill also envisaged the payment of compensation for assigned lands acquired for projects long back at par with the landowners who had agreed to part compensation awarded by the courts to which they are not entitled. This Bill is drafted on the basis of recommendations made by a committee headed by the Revenue Minister after duly examining the relevant laws in force in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Private varsities
The Assembly passed the AP Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2023. It is intended to include The Apollo University (TAU) in the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s list of universities consequent to a clarification by Additional Secretary-II of the UGC that a university could be established only by an Act of the Parliament or an Act of the State Legislature as per Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons (SoOR) attached with the Bill said separate proposals for the establishment of TAU and Mohan Babu University (MBU) were under the government’s consideration but it is not clear whether the establishment of MBU has been given the green signal.
Endowments
The AP Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed, enabling the government to periodically revise the lower and upper limits of the incomes of temples classified under Section 6 of the AP Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act of 1987, and deals with possession of temple lands by tenants and cancellation of licences thereof subject to the directions of High Court on the basis of their treatment as cognizable, non-bailable and triable offences.
Then the Assembly passed AP Public Service Commission (Entrustment of Additional Functions with respect to the Services of Universities) (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The objective of this Bill is to include the names of certain universities and change the names of some universities in public interest to enable them to avail the services of the APPSC regarding the conduct of written tests, recruitment of teachers and administrative/ministerial staff of the universities.
Road transport corpn.
AP State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed for amending Section 5 of the Act No. 36 of 2019 to ensure continuity and functioning of the Public Transport Department (PTD) in accordance with the predecessor regime, sustain disciplinary proceedings initiated against delinquent employees of PTD as per the APSRTC Conduct and CCA Regulations and to ensure that there is no vacuum in relation to the conduct of disciplinary proceedings, remove legal complications arising from the notification of regional managers as the appointing authorities issued in 2021, which had since not been brought into effect for the purpose of recruitments, and to provide for future course of action in accordance therewith.
The other Bills passed are the AP Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, AP Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, AP Motor Vehicles Taxation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2023 and AP Bhoodan and Gramdan (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
