Govt to encourage investors to purchase land on their own

ACCORDING TO INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATIONS, THE MSME SECTOR WILL BENEFIT THE MOST FROM THIS AMENDMENT.

LUCKNOW: The state government is planning to encourage investors to purchase land themselves. Currently, industrial development authorities provide land to investors. But at times, they either fail to make it available to investors or the plot is more than what is required for the project.

Authorities also face problems in acquiring land as they have to pay compensation to land owners four times the circle rate and this increases the cost of land for investors.

Taking into consideration all these aspects, the state government plans to come up with a policy to encourage investors to purchase private land at their own level.

Chief secretary RK Tewari also issued instructions to departments concerned in this regard for making necessary changes in the policy.

As part of this plan, the state government will also ease regulations for purchasing private land for industrial purpose and laws related to change in land use. Taking the first step in this direction, the UP government has approved changes in the law for use of agricultural land for non–agricultural purpose.

With this, the government has done away with the mandatory rule of constructing a boundary wall before using 12.5 acre or more agricultural land for commercial purpose, said officials. This law was proving to be an obstacle for commercial use of agriculture land in rural areas, stated government officials. Taking note of this issue, chief minister Yogi Adityanath decided to abolish this law, they added. However, investors will have to start industrial activity within five years from the date of change of land use of the agricultural land. After this amendment, employment opportunities in large numbers would be generated in rural areas across the state. According to industrial associations, the MSME sector will benefit the most from this amendment.

Deemed approval

The state government has fixed a deadline of 45 days for officials to complete the process for changing agriculture land into non-agriculture.

After the lapse of this period, there is a provision for deemed approval. But deemed approval was not being given online. Now, the government has issued directives for online generation of deemed approval.

Officials will have to give adequate reason in case of rejection of the application.