Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, No. 3, Part II, Section 1

What the Gazette issue contains

The Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, No. 3, Part II, Section 1, dated 23 January 2013 contains two separate government notifications. One concerns the name of a railway station in Nagapattinam District. The other republishes the Union Government order constituting the Fourteenth Finance Commission.

The Gazette issue does not change land ownership, land classification, planning permission, registration requirements or property taxes.

Railway station spelling change

The Transport Department notification, Government Letter No. 17595/I.1/2009-18 dated 4 January 2013, changes the spelling of the railway station named “Kutralam” to “Kuttalam”. The station is located in Kuttalam Taluk of Nagapattinam District.

Key points are:

• The change concerns the spelling of the railway station’s name.
• The notification identifies the revised English spelling as “Kuttalam”.
• The notification also provides the station name in Tamil script.
• The notification is issued under the name of the Principal Secretary to Government, Braj Kishore Prasad.

Fourteenth Finance Commission

The Finance Department notification, G.O. No. 16 dated 10 January 2013, republishes Order No. 10(2)-B(S)/2012 dated 2 January 2013 from the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India. The President of India constituted the Fourteenth Finance Commission with Dr. Y.V. Reddy as Chairman and four other members.

The Commission was directed to examine and recommend matters including:

• Distribution of divisible tax proceeds between the Union and the States.
• Allocation of State shares and principles governing grants-in-aid.
• Measures to supplement resources available to Panchayats and Municipalities.
• Union and State finances, deficits, debts and fiscal responsibility.
• Subsidies, public utility pricing and public sector enterprises.
• Disaster management financing and public expenditure management.
• The financial impact of the proposed Goods and Services Tax.

The Commission was required to provide State-wise estimates and make its report available by 31 October 2014, covering five years beginning 1 April 2015.

Relevance to property readers

The Transport Department notification may matter when identifying the railway station or locality in records, correspondence or descriptions using the former spelling. The Finance Department notification deals with public finance recommendations and does not itself create a property right, impose a land fee or alter a land record.