‘Land Transfer Act not to be bypassed by Meghalaya Investment Promotion Agency’
Shillong, Mar 7: Chief minister Conrad K Sangma has asserted that the proposed industrial estate at Byrnihat in Ri-Bhoi district is not coming up in any “recorded forest land”.
Replying to a question in the assembly on Thursday, he assured that no environmental laws would be bypassed or flouted in building the industrial estate.
“The idea is to make a state-of-the-art industrial estate,” he said while replying to a query from Mawryngkneng legislator Heaving Stone Kharpran.
He clarified that the 137-acre land proposed to be converted into an industrial estate is not a “recorded forest land”.
“Let me clarify one basic misconception that it is not a recorded forest land as of today,” he said.
Besides, the government will move ahead only with the consent of the people, he assured.
Informing that setting up of industries there is not happening anytime soon, Sangma said so far only the land was transferred from Soil & Water Conservation and Horticulture departments to the government.
The area was underutilised and have been used for horticulture and other training programmes only, he said, adding, “There is much more we can do with it.”
The two departments will be given land in other locations, he said.
Clarifying on the size of the land, he said, “Size of the land is not thousands of acres. It is 137 acre of which 127 acre belongs to Soil & Water Conservation and 10 acre belongs to Horticulture department.”
Ruling out any need for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the industrial estate as a whole, he said question of EIA would come in case to case basis for any project.
Sangma also assured that Land Transfer Act would not be bypassed by the implementing the Meghalaya Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA), which will follow the same yardstick as did by other agencies such as MIDC, MeEC, etc.
“It is the most important Act that has protected our people for years. There is no way in which an agency can overrule an Act passed by this House.
However, expressing his government’s respect for the will of the people, he said, “There were so many decisions we took in the larger interest… we proposed the Gaming Act to get revenue of Rs 500 crore and we did it with good intention. But we realised that the people’s sentiments were not there with us so we took the bold decision of withdrawing it.”
“Even in this project, it is going to be the will of the government that we are taking people on board. We will show them the good side of these projects. There is no question of bulldozing as we are here to serve the people,” he concluded.
