The new land act committee formed by UK CM Pushkar Singh Dhami turns down former CM Trivendra Rawat’s land act !

On the incessant demand for introducing a new concrete land act of Uttarakhand, the chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami had during his previous tenure formed a committee headed by Mr. Subhash Kumar. The committee has now submitted its report to the chief minister of Uttarakhand turning down the land act amended during the former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat lifting ceiling on 12.5 acres of land purchase under the guise of establishing thirty industries. While the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal has outrightly raised serious objections to these recommendations terming them as mere eye wash, there is no reaction from the main opposition party Congress.

According to the news pouring the new land act committee formed under the directions of Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami during his previous tenure has made 23 recommendations in the new land act to modify the previous act. The new land act committee had strongly recommended abolition of the previous orders during Trivendra Rawat’s tenure allowing open purchase of more than 12.5 acres of land for establishing industries, educational institutions, resorts, tourism related businesses etc in Uttarakhand. The committee has strongly recommended that the limit of 12.5 acres of land purchase should be strongly adhered to and land more than this limit should not be allowed to be sold at any cost thus reversing the previous authorisation in this regard. The committee said that till now there was legal provision to allow the purchase of more than 12.5 acres of unlimited amount of land to establish Ayurvedic, health and medical facilities, industries, agricultural tourism related business outlets , horticulture related avenues, resorts, hotel industries, firms, companies etc in the hilly regions and plains of Uttarakhand but according to the new recommendations of the new land act committee purchase of more than 12.5 acres of land as was earlier the case has been completely stopped as was allowed during the tenure of the former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.

The committed has strongly recommended to end this practice. The committee has come to the conclusion that instead of allowing the sale purchase of large tracts of lands in Uttarakhand the lands should be sold on the minimum required living needs as is the case in Himachal Pradesh where the sale of large tracts of lands is not allowed for anyone. The committee has laid emphasis on the sale of limited lands for smal n mediam scale and cottage industries but the district magistrates are not authorised to do the needful as was earlier the case. Recommendations have been made that instead of the district magistrates the concerned authorities at the ministerial levels should take decisions on the sale of such lands for low, medium and middle scale industries. Special emphasis has been laid to ensure that the land should be allotted keeping in view the minimum land size, thus discouraging the ultra rich n ultra industrial houses to buy more than 12.5 acres of land as was the case earlier. The committee has recommended that though no land above 12.5 acres could be purchased but after getting the due permission from the government at the higher levels, the land above 12.5 acres can be purchased. This sounds indifferent as a provision has been made that if one is quite influential politically or otherwise can get more than 12.5 acres of land. This sounds hypocritical and unclear. Recommendations have been made that the lands that are lying idle or the closed factories land should be used for industrial purposes again. Such lands which are lying idle or if factories on these allotted lands are closed or lying non functional such lands may be re allotted for opening of industries, not for other purposes. The committee has issued strong directions against unauthorised capturing of lands and construction of religious structures on government lands issuing directives to concerned authorities to deal with them stringently as per the legal norms and take strong punitive measures. The committee has made strong recommendations against illegal encroachments of government lands, forest lands, government drains, construction of religious structures while directing the government departments to put their sign boards in their respective departments’ lands. Stringent orders have also been recommended to take strict actions against the encroachers and illegal occupants of government lands. The report that consists of 80 pages was prepared after inviting suggestions from criss section of the people, NGOs, social organisations, individuals and stake holders.

Meanwhile the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal has termed this 80 page report of the new land act committee as a pack of recommendations which have allegedly devised new ways and mean for the purchase and sale of large sized land in Uttarakhand not at all serving the interests of common masses. The spokesman of UKD Shiv Prasad Semwal in a statement said that large tracts of lands have allotted to BJP leaders on lease n the committee has said nothing on these arbitrary land allocations. The Committee has maintained silence of the lands allegedly illegally purchased in tea gardens in collaboration with bureaucrats n those in government. He catagorically said that this 80 page report has, done nothing in the interest of common masses with the owners of land bought by them for industrial purposrs