DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government will study a committee’s recommendations aimed at balancing the investment needs of the state with curbing the unchecked land transactions involving “outsiders”.
Some of the 23 recommendations contained in the 80-page report are on the lines of Himachal Pradesh and were submitted to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday.
The committee has recommended stringent action against those who encroach on public land to erect buildings or religious structures on them.
The committee is headed by former chief secretary Subhash Kumar. Its members include Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee president Ajendra Ajay and retired IAS officers Arun Dhaundiyal and D S Garbyal.
Surprisingly, the committee has recommended overturning all land law amendments of the former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat government. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has vowed to implement the land laws strictly in the state.
“Considering the recommendations of the committee in the larger public interest and state interest, the state government will amend the land law,” Dhami said.
“The panel has given various recommendations. We are not stopping anyone from coming here; we are not stopping investors either. However, the land of Uttarakhand should not be misused. Several complaints of misuse have come to us,” Dhami said.
The main recommendations of the committee include taking away the power of district magistrates (DMs) to grant permission to buyers for buying agricultural land and land to set up micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
It has often been seen that permission granted by DMs for buying agricultural land is misused by buyers to build resorts and private bungalows that do not create jobs for locals and render people in the hills landless, the report said.
The power of granting permission for buying land for setting up MSME projects should also be taken away from the DMs and vested in the state administration as in Himachal Pradesh, it said.
The committee recommended putting an end both in hills as well as in the plains to the practice of the government allocating more than 12.05 acres of land to an institution/firm/company or individual for industrial purposes, Ayush, education, health, medical education, horticulture, processing units, tourism and agriculture.
Instead, a system of allocating land for such purposes on the basis of an Essentiality Certificate should be adopted as is prevalent in Himachal Pradesh, it said.
Besides big industries, such allocations should be made to four and five-star hotels, resorts, multi-speciality hospitals, and vocational or professional institutes only, it added.
According to the recommendations, an individual will not need any permission for buying up to 250 sqm of land for residential purposes.