Critics slam agri land move : The Times of India

As part of its Make-in-Maharashtra push for business, the state government has further eased the rules for industrial expansion on agricultural land.In addition to hiking building rights on farm land, reported by this newspaper, the government has also dropped the requirement to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural use.

Officials say the move will cut the red tape around industrial growth on the outskirts of cities, especially for the small and medium scale sector. “The conversion of land use was a process which would take up to two years,“ points out industries secretary Apurva Chandra.

Since the mid-1990s, companies have been allowed to set up industrial units on agricultural land after informing the collector. However, since farm land is classified as a no development zone, they were given minimal building rights with FSI of up to 0.2. If industries sought to build more, they needed the permission of the urban development department to convert the land into a non-agricultural zone. Now industries do not need to seek this zone-change clearance. “Industries no longer need to approach the state government for a zone change. To avail of the additional space, they just need to pay the premium fee to the collector.

This is a major delegation of responsibility from the state to the collectors,“ said urban development secretary Nitin Kareer.

The state government, in a notification earlier this month, had allowed industries nine times the earlier building rights on agricultural land.To exploit this additional space, they merely need to pay a fee worth 30% of the land rate to the district collector.

However, critics warn that dropping the zone-change clearance will remove a crucial level of scrutiny and could pave the way for the reckless expansion of industry on farm land. “The zone change requirement was put in place to prevent fertile agricultural land from being diverted. How will the state ensure that industry does not come up on fertile land?“ asks Debi Goenka from the Conservation Action Trust.

Housing activist Chandrashekhar Prabhu warned that industries could pay to acquire additional building rights on farm land and then fail to use it. “This could result in speculation.How will the state ensure that the land is actually used to set up industry?“ he asks.

The same benefits also apply to public educational and medical institutes as well as highway amenities coming up on farm land. These were also granted additional building rights on farm land earlier this month.

The new rules will apply to areas including the Mumbai metropolitan region, Pune, Nagpur, Sangli, Kolhapur, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri and Raigad. Also, Jalgaon, Amravati and Chandrapur.