Hyderabad: The state cabinet meeting on Thursday is likely to take decisions on some of the crucial issues including whether the VB-G Ram G Act in Telangana should be implemented immediately or whether the state must take more time to consult other states and the Centre, the Hyderabad Metro Rail takeover and Phase-II of the project, against the backdrop of the state and central govt jointly appointing SBI CAPS as the new consultant.Among other issues likely to come up before the cabinet meeting to be chaired by chief minister A Revanth Reddy at the Secretariat on Thursday are the proposed incentives for alternate crops as suggested by the Farmers Commission, the recent approval of defence ministry for taking over 83 acres of defence land for Gandhi Sarovar project as part of the Musi Rejuvenation and Riverfront development project, and also the fee reimbursement issue.

Though the state govt had proposed to take over Phase-I of the metro rail project from L&T with ₹13,600 crore loan from Indian Railway Finance Corporation, the taking over has been deferred after CM Revanth’s meeting with the union railway minister and the union urban affairs minister in New Delhi. The CM is likely to brief the cabinet what was discussed and why SBI CAPS was appointed as the new consultant and the way forward on Hyderabad Metro Rail Phase-I takeover and plans on starting works on Phase-II of the project.Likewise, the defence ministry has given approval for taking up Gandhi Sarovar project works on defence land but the green signal was given with some conditions. These conditions, including financial implications and other matters related to the project, will also be discussed.Another major agenda on which a decision is likely to be taken by the cabinet is whether to notify the new G Ram G Act for implementation in Telangana. The new Act, replacing the Congress-led UPA govt’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), came into effect from July 1. But the Telangana govt has not notified it for the Act to be implemented in the state.The state govt is already offering ₹500 bonus on seven fine varieties of paddy. The state cabinet may discuss the proposed incentives that can be offered for alternate crops to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of less water intensive crops keeping in view the El Nino threat.