Telangana State Assembly clears four amendment Bills

The State Legislative Assembly passed four Bills bringing about amendments to various existing Acts and also adopted a resolution ratifying the 126th amendment to the Constitution passed by both the Houses of Parliament.

On the eighth day of the Budget session, the State Assembly carried out amendments to ‘Telangana Payment of Salaries and Pension and Removal of Disqualifications’ (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to facilitate payment of salaries to the chairpersons of 29 new institutions under ‘Office of Profit’ which includes corporations, boards and urban development authorities among others.

The ‘Telangana Lokayukta’ (Amendment) Bill 2020 was also introduced in the State Assembly and passed to facilitate appointment of a retired judge as Lokayukta rather than a retired Chief Justice due to unavailability of the latter in the State.

The ‘Telangana Goods and Service Tax’ (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was introduced and passed by the State Assembly



to carry out various amendments to the GST Act as per the recommendations of GST Council.

The move will facilitate streamlining GST refunds to traders from State and Central Governments, among others. Similarly, the State Assembly cleared the ‘Telangana Self Help Groups Women Co-contributory Pension’ (Repeal) Bill, 2020 paving way for ending ‘Abhayahastham’ scheme introduced during the Congress regime where Self Help Group members were required to contribute part of their income towards pension scheme. The State government took the decision as the ongoing ‘Aasara pensions’ was a better scheme.

Earlier, Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy dispensed with the Question Hour under Rule 38 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Telangana State Legislative Assembly for Sunday and Monday. Soon afterwards, the Assembly adopted the resolution ratifying the amendments to the Constitution passed by Parliament.