The Uttarakhand government’s much-awaited new agriculture policy is in its final stages amid suspense over the proposal for a ban on industrialisation and SEZ projects on the farmland.
“The decision regarding the use of agriculture land for industrialisation has to be taken by the chief minister,” said Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who is opposing the government’s move to give 55 acres of agriculture land to Tata Motors for the housing purpose.
Rawat has proposed that farmland should not be used for industrialisation and instead, the government should utilise non-agriculture and non-cultivated agriculture land for this purpose. Rawat said nearly 312,000 hectares of non-agriculture and 383,000 hectares of non-cultivated agriculture land is available in the hill state.But he said the policy has been redrafted and now would go to the finance ministry and the chief minister, before being sent to the state cabinet for its final seal of approval.
Last year, a committee, comprising of agriculture scientists, mainly from Pantnagar Agriculture University, had finalised the new agri-draft, which clearly states that there should be no (no) industrialisation and development of SEZ projects on agriculture land, as a large chunk of agri-land has fallen into the hands of land builders and industrialists in Uttarakhand during the past few years. But later, Agriculture Secretary Om Prakash was told by the chief minister to redraft the policy with certain amendments.