Governor Arif Muhammad Khan signs five bills; land reclassification to get easier

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Muhammad Khan signed five more bills including the amendment to the Paddy Wetland Amendment Bill, which gives the power of land reclassification to each deputy collector of 78 taluks in addition to the 27 RDOs. This will speed up the processing of the pending 3.5 lakh reclassification applications.

Other Bills are the Land Assignment Amendment Bill, Co-operative Societies Act Amendment Bill, Abkari Act Amendment Bill and Dairy Farmers Welfare Fund Amendment Bill. With this, all the bills left to the Governor were approved.

With the land reclassification application made online, RD offices received up to 500 applications a day. The Assembly had passed the bill in September empowering Deputy Collectors to dispose of these applications expeditiously. The bill was signed after months of delay.

The Land Amendment Bill allows the land given by the government to be used for purposes other than agriculture and residence. The land used for other purposes can also be regularised from now on. It will be most useful in Idukki. The governor had sought an explanation on the complaint that the bill was meant to facilitate encroachments.

If there is no warning that alcohol is harmful to health in films and advertisements, the current provision is imprisonment of up to six months. The Abkari Act Amendment Bill includes provision for exemption from imprisonment and imposing a fine of up to Rs 50,000. The punishment for illegal toddy tapping is a fine of 10,000 rupees.

In the Dairy Farmers Welfare Fund Amendment Bill, there is a provision to impose a Penal Interest on group secretaries who do not pay the share of dairy farmers to the Welfare Fund Board. The condition of welfare fund membership only for farmers who give 500 litres of milk per year has been waived. Farmers who provide milk at least once can apply for membership. 12 members in the governing body have been changed to 16.

The Co-operative Societies Act Amendment Bill includes provisions that the office-bearers of credit co-operative societies should not remain in the governing body for more than three consecutive terms. The bill also has provisions for three terms for the members of the governing body in credit unions, formation of youth groups, formation of social cooperatives for the differently-abled and transgender, administrative audit, public software, computer accounting and audit, team audit etc.