Assembly clears solar land leasing, renames secretariats

Vijayawada: The Assembly on Thursday passed two key amendment Bills during the Budget session, one enabling the leasing of assigned lands to solar power companies and another renaming Village and Ward Secretariats as Swarna Gram and Swarna Ward in line with the government’s long-term development vision.

Introducing the Assigned Lands Act Amendment Bill, revenue minister Anagani Satyaprasad said the amendment would permit assigned lands to be leased for solar power projects, a move aimed at accelerating the state’s green energy transition. He said the government was giving top priority to renewable energy investments and striving to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

The minister informed the House that solar power projects with a cumulative capacity of 10,000 MW are being established across the state, with an estimated employment potential of 7.5 lakh jobs. He noted that earlier legal provisions did not allow assigned lands to be utilised for such projects, but the amendment now makes it possible to lease them legally.

Satya Prasad said landowners would receive rental income from leasing their assigned lands and assured that lease amounts would be revised once every two years. He added that successive governments had so far assigned around 35 lakh acres of land to beneficiaries.

Participating in the debate, Sarvepalli MLA Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy observed that in several places assigned lands had changed hands and alleged that middlemen who acquired lands from poor beneficiaries were reaping the benefits.

He urged the government to ensure that only genuine beneficiaries receive lease payments. He also sought safeguards for farmers cultivating orchards on assigned lands and called for a comprehensive probe into alleged irregularities in land pre-holdings during the previous YSRCP regime.

The House later approved the amendment to the Andhra Pradesh Village and Ward Secretariats Act, formally renaming village and ward secretariats as Swarna Gram and Swarna Ward.

Social welfare minister Dola Balaveeranjaneyaswamy, who introduced the Bill, said the move was aligned with the government’s Swarna Andhra Vision 2047, aimed at transforming the State into a developed Andhra Pradesh. He stated that functional changes were also being implemented in accordance with this vision and that an ordinance to this effect had already been promulgated by the Governor in January through a Gazette notification.

The minister said that secretariats operating from rented buildings would be shifted to government premises wherever available. He also announced promotional avenues for Swarna Gram and Swarna Ward staff, stating that the government was taking steps to ensure career progression across departments. A joint collector-rank officer would serve as the district-level governing authority, he added.