Govt plans 3-day Assembly session from February 5

Vijayawada : In view of speculations that the Election Commission of India may announce the poll schedule any time after February 9, the state government has decided to hold a three-day session of Assembly from February 5 to 7. The Governor’s joint address would be on February 5 followed by presentation of the vote-on-account budget on the same day. Next two days would be for discussing and passing the vote-on-account budget and also passing some pending bills.

This decision was taken at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. This would be the last full-fledged cabinet meeting though it would meet again briefly to adopt the budget proposals on February 4 or February 5.

The cabinet decided to issue DSC notification to recruit 6,100 teachers in government schools and fill 689 vacancies in the Forest department. This has come in for criticism from the opposition. The TDP and other parties said that this was a decision which cannot be implemented since soon the election code would come into effect.

The Cabinet ratified fresh investment proposals worth Rs 22,302 crore in green energy projects approved by the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB). It has also decided to take Geneva-based educational organisation IB as partner for training the teachers of government schools and staff of the Education department in handling IB syllabus that would be introduced from the academic year 2025-26.

Another important decision was to increase the retirement age of non-teaching staff of universities and higher educational institutions to 62 and fill 27 vacancies in the Legislature Secretariat.

It had given nod to implement the welfare calendar for the month of February and release Rs 5,060.04 crore towards the fourth tranche of YSR Cheyutha benefitting 26,98,931 SC, ST, BC and minorities women of 45 to 60 years of age.

The Cabinet has also decided to appoint secretaries for all 13,171 Village Panchayats having population of more than 500 people besides creating the post of Registrar in RGUKT by amending the law.

A proposal to give bank guarantee to APDiscoms to raise a loan of Rs 1,500 crore for extending distribution network, allot 1,272.7 acres of land to the Greenko Pvt Ltd in Nandyala district for establishing solar power units and 42 acres for establishing IIT City in Tirupati district were also cleared.

The Cabinet has also decided to reduce VAT on natural gas from 24.5 per cent to 5 per cent and amend rules of Advocates Welfare Fund 1987 besides accepting the 4th State Finance Commission Report and the Government Life Insurance Fund 2024 proposals.

It has decided to exempt 5,376 families displaced due to the Pulichintala project from paying registration and user charges of Rs 60 crore on allotment of house sites under the Navaratnalu-Pedalandariki Illu.

The Cabinet has also decided to establish the AP Legislature Institute of Legislative Study and Training to train newly elected legislature members besides allotting 500 square yards and 1,000 square yards of house sites to chess player Alana Meenakshi Kolagatla and tennis player Saketh Myneni respectively.