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Gram Sabha land up for grabs in Yogi’s UP

It has waived the stipulation of paying four times the prevailing market value/circle rate, for acquiring ‘gram sabha’ land for development projects, under the existing land acquisition norms enforced in 2015.

farm land
 
Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government relaxed land norms to allow industries to grab Gram Sabha land on Wednesday. It has waived the stipulation of paying four times the prevailing market value/circle rate, for acquiring ‘gram sabha’ land for development projects, under the existing land acquisition norms enforced in 2015.
 
“The UP cabinet has decided to relax the provision for ‘gram sabha’ land owned by the state government and instead allowed for paying compensation as per the prevailing circle/market rates,” The Business Standard reported. It added that land acquisition norms had stalled 350 infrastructure and industrial projects in UP.
 
“Briefing the media after the meet, UP health minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said the decision was taken to make the ‘gram sabha’ land available for development projects. “The industry had been facing problems in executing projects owing to the existing norms of paying 4 times compensation. Besides, it was also deemed impractical and unviable. As such, the cabinet decided to revert to the land acquisition policy of prior to 2015 for ‘gram sabha’ land,” he informed,” the report added.
 
“Welcoming this move, President of Indian Industries Association (IIA), Sunil Vaish told KNN India that this move will help in land allotment for MSMEs. He said, “From past one and a half years we already had been demanding small industrial lands for the MSMEs at affordable rates as firms find it difficult to set up units at 4 times circle rate. It is non-sustainable for industries,” KNN reported.
 
In UP, total Gram Sabha land runs into hundreds of thousands of hectares spread across more than 1,00,000 villages. For acquiring such land, the concessionaire or the developer has to approach the respective district magistrate (DM), who then initiates the process after due diligence and necessary legal formalities.

The newly sanctioned land grab, however, skips over the many checks and balances and practically hands over vast swathes of cultivable land to corporate entities while dis-empowering traditional rural agrarian communities.

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