BANGALORE: Karnataka has made life a lot easier for investors by doing
away with the need for getting farmland converted for industrial use
after a project is approved by the government.
"The agriculture
land where an investor has proposed a project is deemed converted once
it is cleared at the highest level," Chief Secretary
Kaushik Mukherjee
told ET. "This will open up flood-gates for good industrial
development." A high-level committee chaired by the chief minister
clears investment proposals above Rs 50 crore, and those below that are
approved by a single-window committee, headed by the chief secretary.
The government of Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah
has pushed this significant change through an amendment to Section 109
of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1962. The relief is applicable to
educational institutions, housing and horticulture (green-house)
projects as well as places of worship. Those investors failing to set up
industries within the timeline prescribed will, however, have to
surrender the land to the government.
"This is the
single-most-important ingredient of the government's new industrial
policy," the chief secretary said, adding that the government came under
resistance while trying to push for this change. "There was a lot of
corruption at lower levels and proposals often got stuck because of the
conversion requirement," he added.
Corporates see this as a
welcome relief. According to TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global
Education Services, the amendment will empower farmers to sell their
land directly to the highest bidder. "Because of the reduction in
processes, farmers will get a better price while buyers a quicker
conclusion of possessing the land," he said. According to Ramadas
Kamath, executive vice president at
Infosys, his firm has gone through the pain of land conversion for each of its projects in the past. Source
K R Balasubramanyam, ET Bureau Sep 15, 2014, 05.48AM IST
