Odisha govt approves two ordinances

Odisha cabinet today approved 14 proposals including promulgation of two ordinances on rotation of office reservation of the sarpanch at every general elections and amendment of the the Odisha Electricity (Duty) Act, 1961.
Chief Secretary A P Padhi said henceforth there will be rotation of reservation of the office of the sarpanch at every general elections similar to the case of ward members, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad posts.
He said the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved the panchayati raj department's proposal and said since only few months are left for the three-tier general elections for different panchayat posts, the Cabinet approved to promulgate the ordinance for the purpose.

As per the existing provision of Odisha Grama Panchayats (OGP) Act, 1964, the rotation of reservation of offices of the sarpanchs are to be made after every two terms of general elections.
"Hence, Clause (a) of sub section(6) of section 10 of OGP Act, 1964 is required to be amended for a similar provision to rotate the reservation of offices of sarpanch at every general elections," Padhi said.
About the second ordinance, the secretary said the amendment in the Odisha Electricity (Duty) Act, 1961, will enable government to administer the ED Act properly. "It gives better justice to different classes of consumers including open access users and will also help in recovery of arrear ED dues from the defaulting consumers," he said.

Replying to a question, Padhi, however said that the common domestic electricity consumers, will in no way be affected by the ordinance.
This apart, Padhi said for the benefit of consumers using small generators, the lower limit of capacity of generators attracting levy of ED has been raised from 10 KVA to 50 KVA.
Stating that the state would get an estimated additional revenue of Rs 90 crore for emending the OED Act, 1961, Padhi said as four months of the current fiscal has already passed the state expected to get Rs 60 crore in remaining eight months.