MIDC to acquire nearly 30,000 acre for industries

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is planning to acquire close to 30,000 acre of land all over the state for developing new industrial estates and expanding existing ones.

A senior MIDC official said that the corporation had identified land in Aurangabad, Nashik, Solapur, Kolhapur and Nagpur and has a sent a proposal to the state government for acquiring these lands.

He said, "Currently we are facing a situation where the demand for industrial land is far in excess of the supply." He indicated that the entire acquisition will be funded by the state.

MIDC has also come up with an innovative proposal to overcome resistance of the farmers towards land acquisition. MIDC has put forward a proposal of giving a part of the land back to farmers at concessional rates.

The MIDC official said, "One of their main objection to the acquisition process is that the government buys land at prices less than the market and sells to industries at higher rates. The other objection they have is that with the land gone, they don't have any other means of livelihood and the industries that come up in the area, don't offer them any job as they don't have the required skills. To overcome the problem, we have decided to offer the farmers 15 per cent of the land we acquire back at 50 per cent rate at which we sell to industrial houses; this land will be given to farmers in addition to the cash compensation, for their land," the official pointed out.

"It will also encourage the farmers to come forward and experiment with forming their own cooperative so as to develop land and raise its value like the Magarpatta City in Pune, where the farmers formed a joint stock company and used the land to develop IT park, housing complexes and the like. We will support such initiatives from farmers," he added.