CM Jagan's Cabinet Nod To Amend AP Gaming Act To Ban Online Gaming

AMRAVATI, Nov 27: The State Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, gave a nod to pay crop insurance for 2019-20 Kharif season, where Rs 1227.774 Crores will be credited into farmers accounts on December 15, and distribute house site pattas on December 25.
Briefing media here on Friday after the cabinet meeting, Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu said that the Cabinet gave a nod for distributing 30,60,000 house site pattas on December 25, costing Rs 23,000 Crore. The minister stated that the construction of the houses will also be started on the same day, with a target to complete 16 lakh houses in 8494 layouts under phase one by June 2022, at a cost of Rs 1.80 lakh per unit. 
D Forms will be given for house site lands under litigation and after the court clearance, a convenience deed will be given. For this project, the State government pooled 66,518 acres of land across the State including the government and private lands. Further, the State government will also distribute TIDCO houses to the beneficiaries by collecting only one rupee.

To empower women and strengthen the Dairy sector in State, the cabinet approved AP Amul project, which is scheduled for launch on December 2. In the first phase, the project takes place in 400 villages of Kadapa, Chittoor, and Prakasam districts, where around 9899 Bulk Milk Chilling Units will also be established. To empower women, for interested beneficiaries of Cheyutha and Aasara scheme cattle, goats and sheep will be distributed on December 10.
The Chief Minister will launch the resurvey project “YSR Jagananna Shaswatha Bhu hakku mariyu Bhu raksha pathakam” on December 21.  He said the best technology will be used in conducting the comprehensive survey and Survey stones would be given to farmers free of cost. The Survey will start on December 21 and will be held in phases and will be completed by 2023; he said adding the Cabinet has approved Rs 927 crore for the project.
The State government has borne the entire premium for crop insurance without even charging one rupee from farmers and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be crediting Rs 1227.774 Crore directly to the beneficiaries accounts towards 2019 Kharif crop insurance. He said that between 2016-19, in a span of three years, farmers paid a premium of Rs 871.26 Crore, and for 2019 Kharif the State government had borne the entire premium of Rs 1030.74 Crore. While only 60.84 lakh farmers have availed crop insurance of Rs 37,453.79 Crore between 2016-19, in just one year 2019-20 nearly 58.77 lakh farmers were brought under crop insurance which is of Rs 37,721.57 Crore.
In addition to these, the Cabinet has approved to change the system of levying of Property tax from Annual rental Value basis (ARV System) to capital Value (CV) system. In the new system, the percentage tax so fixed, is between 0.10% and 0.50% of the capital value (CV) for residential buildings and it’s between 0.2% to 2% of the Capital Value (CV) for non residential buildings and only Rs 50 is levied as property tax for houses of below poverty line (BPL) families.  The Minister said the new tax (hike) would be limited to 15 per cent of the existing rate. The Minister said the chief minister directed to delink the general funds of urban local bodies from CMSF funds and let the revenue of the urban local bodies be used for the same bodies.
The state cabinet also approved to clear the pending arrears of DA for employees and pensioners. In regard to employees and pensioners, DA with a hike of 3.144 percent which was applicable from July 2018 will be paid from January 2021 along with another hike of 3.144 percent (applicable from January 2019 and will be paid from July 2021). Also the hike of 5.24 percent which was applied from July 2019 will be paid from January 2022. In addition to these, employees salary and pensions that was deferred for the month of March will be paid in December and the April amount will be paid in January.

Speaking on Polavaram project, the minister stated that the cabinet condemned the speculations and reports on reducing the dam height and said that there won't be any change in the height of the dam.

The Minister said the cabinet has approved for the incorporation of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under Uttarandhra Irrigation Projects Development Corporation limited (UIPDCL) and also another SPV under Andhra Pradesh Palnadu Area Drought Mitigation Projects Corporation limited (AP PADMPCL) duly including Guntur Channel extension scheme and YSR Vedadri lift irrigation scheme under “YSR Palnadu Drought Mitigation Project”. A Special Purpose vehicle under Krishna- Kolleru salinity mitigation Project Corporation limited in which four regulators to come up on Kolleru and three structures to come up on Krishna River.  
The Cabinet also approved for World Bank assisted dam rehabilitation and improvement project (DRIP), Phase- 2&3 according administrative approval for an amount of Rs776.50 crore. The Cabinet also accorded administrative approval to increase the discharge from 12000 cusecs to 24000 cusecs of Somasila- Kandaleru Flood flow canal with an amount of 918.80 crore. The Cabinet approved sanction Rs 240.53 crore for completion of R&R package in Chitravati balancing reservoir so as to impound 10 TMC of water in the project. The Cabinet approved for the extension works of the North feeder Channel canal of Rallapadu reservoir in Prakasam district with an amount of Rs632 crore.
 The cabinet agreed to amend the AP Gaming Act 1974 in the ensuing Assembly session to ban online gambling.
The Chief Minister said to ensure that organizers are also punished along with players and are charged with Non-bailable offence. Besides these, the cabinet approved bills regarding the supply, pricing and manufacturing of quality fodder for animals along with AP Fisheries University Bill. Also, the cabinet gave a nod to the proposed incentives for Kopparthi YSR-Jagananna Mega Industrial Hub, which was aimed to create employment opportunities for the youth.