CHENNAI: Now, district collectors’ concurrence is not needed for converting agricultural wetland into non-agricultural one in non-planning areas. The move by the state government aims at simplifying the approval process and reducing delays. According to a G.O. issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department on November 4, the director of Town and Country Planning will now grant prior concurrence for such conversions.
Housing and Urban Development secretary R Kirlosh Kumar said the order was issued to reduce the time taken to process applications and simplify the procedure. The change follows the passage of an amendment to TN Town and Country Planning Act, 1971, in the recent Assembly session.
The legislation amended Sections 47-A and 9-F, removing the collector’s role in granting prior concurrence and making the DTCP the authority in wetland conversion cases.
A senior DTCP official said earlier promoters and builders had to first approach the collector for land conversion and then apply to the DTCP for planning permission. “The order has not removed any checklist or safeguard. All mandatory NOCs from departments concerned are still required for conversion,” the official said.
The latest order prescribes nine documents that applicants must upload through the online Single Window Portal. These include sale or lease deeds, patta, Chitta, Adangal records for the past three Fasli years, a site drainage plan and a topographical plan showing existing developments within a 500-metre radius of the proposed site. Applicants must also submit an affidavit undertaking that no government poramboke or land belonging to others is included in the proposal.
The order also removes Rule 6 of the 2017 Rules, which prescribed the collector’s site inspection and scrutiny. However, the safeguards under Rule 7 remain. Rule 7 prescribes the safeguards that the director of DTCP must examine before granting prior concurrence.
S Ramaprabhu of Builders Association of India said applications earlier took two to three months to process. “We hope that under the new system, it will take 15 to 30 days,” he said. A few weeks ago, the government had dropped the Agriculture Department’s approval requirement for the industrial use of dry agricultural land.
