Gandhinagar: Gujarat govt has taken an in-principle decision to allocate 6,247 hectares of unused land reserved for relief and rehabilitation of persons displaced by the Narmada dam project for industrial purposes and other development works.A presentation in this regard was made at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, after which an in-principle decision was taken to transfer the unused land reserved in 40 talukas of 9 districts to the revenue department which will then allocate it for various projects, top sources in the govt said.Vadodara has the highest such reserved land, with 1,347.77 hectares, followed by Bharuch (1198.16 hectares), Ahmedabad (944.07 hectares), Chhota Udepur (691.75 hectares), Panchmahal (660.01 hectares), Narmada (593.31 hectares), Kheda (570 hectares), Tapi (98.24 hectares) and Mahisagar (93.69 hectares).“Relief and rehabilitation work has been formally completed and the Gujarat govt has also received an approval from the Grievance Redressal Authority which the SC had mandated to set up for rehabilitation and compensation for project-affected families (PAFs). The land parcels will now be transferred to the revenue department and will be utilized for various projects, primarily industrial projects,” sources said.Sources said that a majority of departments have been waiting for land acquisition and allotment for projects like industrial estates, PHCs, CHCs and other development projects. “Land will now be readily available for various projects of govt departments,” official sources said.Govt officials added that over the years, these reserved land parcels have come within city limits because of expansion of cities and towns. “It is becoming an increasingly difficult task of protecting these land parcels from encroachments. These lands can now be used readily for building schools, colleges, ITIs, anganwadis, sports complexes and the like, as several departments are waiting for land for their proposed projects,” sources said.
