BENGALURU: The state government continues to drag its feet on giving approval to Karnataka Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2017.
The bill was expected to be approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, but the government has decided to take it up in the next Cabinet meeting.
Speaking to reporters, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, T B Jayachandra said that Chief Secretary Subhash Kunthia who was heading a sub committee on the Act made a presentation explaining how it has been taken up in other states and also the recommendations regarding the Act, but the Cabinet decided to take it up later. There is some amount of confusion regarding the inclusion of ongoing projects under the Act’s ambit. Earlier, the government had promised to notify the rules by April 30 of this year.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet has decided to issue the order related to waiver of farm loans announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday at the earliest.
The Cabinet has also approved the filing of an affidavit in the Supreme Court wherein they have indicated that around 4,98,991 hectares of land be excluded from 17,62,919 hectares of land established as deemed forest. A cabinet subcommittee had been working towards eliminating some land which did not come under the purview of deemed forest for the last three years in accordance with Central government guidelines, Jayachandra said.
The cabinet has also approved a survey of water bodies in the state that can be categorised as wetlands. According to estimates, there are close to 11,000 water bodies that can be categorised as wetlands and a committee will be appointed in each district under the DC to conduct a survey.
The report is expected to be submitted in one month’s time. The subsequent numbers will be sent to the Central government to notify them under Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2010.