Amballur project land takeover gets clearance.

The electronic hardware park project to come up at Amballur in Kochi received a major push recently as the cabinet cleared the proposal for acquiring 100 acres. 'The land will be acquired using the same model we have followed during the land acquisition for Kochi Metro project,'said chief minister Oommen Chandy.

Revenue department would soon issue orders amending land acquisition rules for enabling negotiated purchase of land. The district collector would then initiate steps to take over land through district-level purchase committee. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), the nodal agency for the project, would simultaneously initiate steps to obtain environmental clearance and relaxation of Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) Act and Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act required for the project.

Fully digital state: The cabinet directed departments concerned to speed up the efforts to make Kerala the first fully digital state in the country. As part of this, all service providers who have applied for request of way would be granted the same. The cabinet has directed all district collectors to speed up procedures for facilitating installation of mobile phone towers in government offices. A similar directive would be issued to all local bodies.

Supernumerary posts: The cabinet decided to create supernumerary posts against those government officials who would retire till June 30, for making maximum appointments from the LDC rank list. The list would expire by the end of this month. 'Last year, we had extended the list. But, this year, the new list is ready. Creating the posts is just a formality and there won't be any additional burden on the government,' said Chandy.

Kerala Mission: Another decision of the state cabinet was to authorize partner Kerala Mission to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with private players for the public-private-partnership projects to be implemented in local bodies. The formats of the MoU and model request for qualification were approved by the cabinet. Now, finance and law departments would examine the draft documents and prepare the final version.

Matsya Samrudhi: It was also decided to extend the service of contract staff working in the fisheries department's Matsya Samrudhi project for three months. 'Though the project completes it task by March 13, certain related works are needed to be completed. An amount of Rs. 67.50 lakh has been allotted with regard to the extension,',said Chandy.

TOI