Trade license not required for any commercial institute, except brick kilns, liquor shop, hospital, school & other industries with heavy pollution: Cabinet

March 7: In the weekly Assam Cabinet on 7 March, several key decisions regarding repealing of obsolete laws, revision of land premium rates, ease of doing business, ensuring safety of workers, empowering law enforcers, raising loan from NABARD, transparency in GMC polls, etc., among others were taken. The Cabinet Meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma. 

KEY DECISIONS:

Revision of land premium rates:

► The concept of Revenue Town has been abolished. All Revenue Towns will be treated as rural areas for the purpose of land revenue
► Except the district headquarters and a few other important towns, the periphery of all other towns will be treated as rural area and land premium, etc, will be fixed as per notified rates of rural area.

For ease of doing business:

► Henceforth, no trade licence will be required for running any commercial institute, except brick kilns, liquor shop, hospital, school and other industries with heavy pollution.

For better management of Finances:

► 2142 crore to be raised as loan from NABARD for continuation of projects sanctioned under RIDF-XXVII in Animal Husbandry & Veterinary, Elementary Education and Irrigation departments.
► Approval to Assam Taxation (Liquidation of Arrear Dues) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 for extending incentives provided under Assam Taxation (Liquidation of Arrear Dues) Act, 2005 to ensure efficiency in revenue collection
► Creation of Grants and renaming of existing Grants of Budget, under which 19 existing grants will be renamed and number of grants to be raised from 78 to 80 in respect of Budget Estimates
► Assam Contingency Fund (Augmentation of Corpus) Bill, 2022 to permanently augment the corpus of Contingency Fund from existing 2200 crore to 22,000 crore to meet exigencies like natural calamities, Covid-19 pandemic, etc.

Ensuring workers’ safety:

Assam Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Rules, 2022 to secure the working conditions and safety of workers

► Provisions guaranteed:

• Single online registration for all workers in official websites of the departments along with auto generation of registration certificates
• Annual medical examination for every worker who has completed 40 years of age
• Appointment letter to every employee along with mandatory identity cards
• Grievance reporting mechanism for employees to report any unsafe or unhealthy condition in the establishment to the employer/ Safety Officer
• Constitution of a Safety Committee with representatives of employers and workers for every establishment employing 100 or more workers.

For transparency in GMC polls:

► Approval to The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 for replacing paper ballots with EVMs to ensure transparency and efficiency in elections
► Approval to final publication of notification for Guwahati Municipal Corporation Election (Amendment) Rules, 2022.

Empowering law agencies:

Approval to the Assam Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to strengthen law agencies to eliminate intoxicants

► Objectives:

• Empower Police Officers to investigate offences under Assam Excise Act, 2000 by amending Section 42
• Authorise Police Officers to report to magistrate to take cognizance of offences under Sections 53, 54, 55, 61 or 61-B of the Assam Excise Act, 2000 by amending Section 69.

Doing away with obsolescence:

► Assam Excise Repealing Bill, 2022 approved to improve ease of doing business in the Department of Excise

Obsolete Acts to be repealed:

• The Assam Ganja and Bhang Prohibition Act, 1958
• The Assam Opium Smoking Act, 1927
• The Assam Opium Amendment Act, 1933
• The Assam Opium Prohibition Act, 1947
• The Assam Opium Amendment (Autonomous Districts) Act, 1954
• The Assam Temperance Act, 1926

► Assam Borstal Institution Act, 1968 and Assam Children Act, 1970 to be repealed following enactment of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.