Shillong, Mar 6: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said the 137 acres of land proposed to be converted into state-of-the-art industrial estate at Byrnihat is not a ‘recorded forest land’ even as he assured that the government will move ahead only with the consent of the people.
“Let me clarify one basic misconception…that it is not a recorded forest land as of today,” Sangma said while replying to a short duration discussion moved by legislator from Mawryngkneng Heaving Stone Kharpran in the Assembly, on the proposed conversion of forest land into an industrial estate in Byrnihat by the state government.
“Two, that it is not we just take this particular land and tomorrow itself industries will start. The only process we started as of now is to transfer this land from the soil and conservation department and horticulture department to the government. That is all. Nothing beyond that as of now,” he said adding “The reason why we are doing that is because this particular land is currently having some activity related to horticulture and some training program.
There are two-three program of trainings going on and as a government we felt that this land is being underutilized and that there is much more we can do with that and and hence we decided one thing that this land should be given to the government.”
He said that the two departments will be given seperate lands in other locations so that they are compensated for the land that is being transferred to the government.
“The total size of this land is not thousands of acres, it is 137 acres of which 127 acres belongs to the soil and conservation and 10 acres of the horticulture department,” Sangma said while maintaining that 55.9% of the land is degraded shrub land.
The chief minister clarified that the government’s intention is to make the area into a state-of-the-art industrial estate taking into account of its prime location.
“The idea is to make the state-of-the-art industrial estate and question of us bypassing or flaunting laws including environmental laws does not arise,” he assured.
“For any project that we would move forward in the future would require us to do environmental impact assessment (EIA) and all procedures will need to be followed case to case. Now, the EIA does not arise but we will do that on case to case basis if any project we take up in the future,” he added further.
Further, the chief minister reiterated that there is no question of bypassing the land transfer act while implementing the Meghalaya Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA)
“There is a concern that we will be giving land to private sector and bypassing land transfer Act.
There is no question of bypassing the land transfer Act. It is the most important Act we have and protected our people for years and no way in which an agency can overrule an Act passed by this House. So let it be clear that there is no question of land transfer by MIPA. Procedure followed in the past through MIDC, MeEC and others is same.The question of MIPA getting special powers does not arise… The MIPA is being brought in to facilitate the investment and will follow same yardsticks, same rules followed by other agencies of the government. Question of us bypassing the public, local leaders, laws valid for decades will not arise,” he assured further.
Stating that his government has never bulldoze the wish of the people, Sangma said in the past it has also revoke certain decisions due to the desire of the people while referring to the Gaming Act, following stiff opposition.
“Government has always been very clear, we want to do many things. We believe in taking our state forward but we will always take our people on board and we have shown and demonstrated in the past that this government has the will to even come back on decisions based on the desire of the people. There were so many decisions we took in the larger interest as we wanted revenue to grow so we decided yes we may be having the Gaming Act to get revenue of Rs 500 crore…we did it with a god intention but we realise people sentiments was not there with us and people were concern about what impact it would have so we took that bold decision, we were humbled we did not worry how it would hurt our ego as the will of the people is more important to us. so we listen to their concern and it is a great example how this government works,”he said.
“Therefore, even in this project it is going to be the will of the government that we are taking people on board. We wil show them the good side of these projects. There is no question of bulldoze as we are here to serve the people it is not about whether the CM is right or wrong,” the chief minister maintained.
