Staff Reporter :
In a decision aimed at easing the hurdles of entrepreneurs interested in setting up new manufacturing units, Maharashtra Government has given a blanket NoC, by way of doing away with need for a non-agriculture (NA) nod for diversion of any green patch. Revenue Department has issued a notification wherein it said that permission for NA is no longer required henceforth for establishment of new industry in any part of the State. The same is part of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) policy as envisaged by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). It is now possible as State Government has carried out required changes in rules laid down under Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.
To set up a new unit, the investor needs scores of permission which is a time consuming process. The industry broached-up the subject with policy makers and hence Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) came into being wherein Union Government is going to rank states based on measures taken for resolving the road blocks in path of investors. The decision of Revenue Department about doing away with requirement of NA for industry is in tune with the said norms and it discussed three key points while taking the new decision.
The first was about Integration of Change in Land Use with MAITRI-SWS, Procedure Document for Change in Land User sand Dashboard for Change in Land Use, and these are meant to deal with application for change in land use pattern, from agriculture to non-agriculture.
The same is necessary to initiate construction on agriculture land.
The notification issued on January 29 mentioned that as per sec 42 (a), (b), (c) and sec 44-A of Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, there is already provision that no prior sanction is now necessary for land’s changed use, especially for non-agriculture use. However, there is still no excuse for land owners, in case they want to undertake change in land use. Therefore, after studying the issue, it was decided to amend the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.
Already, State is seized of issue about amending the Land Revenue Code so as to do away with necessity for NA mandate. But the procedure for changes is quite big and it would take long time to implement. Till then, Revenue Department stated that in case any agriculture land is needed for non-agriculture use, especially for starting manufacturing activity, no prior nod from local Development Authority would be required.
The need for development permission is done away with. The investor setting the new industrial unit just has to inform the local Village Revenue Officer for making the necessary change in property register.
The policy, though quite welcome from industry point of view, has wide reaching ramifications. In sense, now Government would not be required to carry out lengthy exercise to set up industrial belt, as any entrepreneur can identify vacant land,
especially agriculture land, and set-up their unit. But that way the control and regulations that are in place to keep residential, agriculture, business and industry in different areas could get negated.