Itanagar, Aug 26: Ahead of the forthcoming Assembly session, the state Cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, approved the draft

‘Arunachal Pradesh Tenancy Bill, 2022’, which aims at creating “a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive rental housing market in the State”.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired on Friday by Khandu through video-conferencing, also approved the government proposals for bringing in two amendment Bills in the ensuing House session. The Arunachal Pradesh Tenancy Bill, 2022 envisages striking balance on the rights of tenant and landlord, and create an accountable and transparent ecosystem for renting of premises in a disciplined and efficient manner, a statement from the chief minister's office said.

It aims to provide a speedier dispute resolution framework and is expected to give a fillip to private participation in rental housing for addressing the housing shortage across the state in different income groups.

“The Bill aims at creating a vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive rental housing market in the country. It will enable the creation of adequate rental housing stock for all income groups thereby addressing the issue of homelessness. It will enable the institutionalization of rental housing by gradually shifting it toward the formal market,” it said. For making the payment/ receipt of taxes transparent, efficient, effective and user-friendly, the State Cabinet approved for enactment of the Arunachal Pradesh Goods and Services Tax (1st Amendment) Bill, 2022 to implement different provisions of the Arunachal Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 in the State and to get it introduced and tabled for passing in the ensuing State Legislative Assembly session.

The Arunachal Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was enacted with a view to make a provision for levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services or both by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh. The proposed amendment Bill was necessitated as the different provisions under Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017 have already been amended by the Central Government and the same need to be done in the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Act, 2017 of the respective State as all the provisions are uniformly administered throughout the country under GST, the statement said.

The council of ministers also approved the proposal for amendment of Arunachal Pradesh Civil Court Bill, 2021 with a direction to place the Bill in the ensuing Assembly session.

The Arunachal Pradesh Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 once enacted and implemented would enable the Deputy Commissioners to transfer the pending appeals to the Courts of Civil Judge Junior Division, the Courts of Civil Judge Senior Division in addition to the Courts of Additional District Judge and the District Judge as per their territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction; restore the organic link between the village Authority and Local Administrative Officers in facilitating and referring back of the cases by the local administrative officers to village authority for settlement.It would also enable the inter village customary court or apex customary court, by whatever name called, to settle the appeal out of the order passed by village authority without directly approaching the regular courts, if the parties to the case agreed to. This will lessen the workload of the regular courts, and enable the DCs and the Assistant Commissioners to execute and enforce the order or decree passed by the village Authority to make the system more efficacious.

Moreover, the Cabinet approved amendment of the Agriculture Development Officer/Agriculture Development Officer (Plant Protection) Recruitment Rules (RR) 2019 by amending the minimum qualification of ‘accredited under ICAR’ and by replacing it with ‘BSc (Agriculture) from any recognized university’.

As per the existing RR, the candidates who have passed out from Agriculture University not accredited by ICAR are not eligible for applying for the post of Agriculture Development Officer (ADO). This condition is depriving many students who have passed out from recognised Universities without ICAR accreditation. This will pave the way for more agriculture graduates to compete in the examination, the statement said.