KapilDave
: Gandhinagar, Mon Jun 25 2012, 04:14 hrs
Following
the Supreme Court’s order in January 2011, the state government is
expected to announce the long overdue Gochar Land Policy which
prohibits the allotment of pastoral (gochar) land of villages for
industrial or commercial purposes.
The new Gochar Land Policy draft,
prepared by the state revenue department which was pending approval
from the state lawyers in the Supreme Court and the state legal
department, has now been approved.
“The
final policy draft of the new Gochar Land Policy was stuck due to
ambiguities concerning the legal interpretation of the Supreme Court
order. A Ministerial committee formed for deciding the various
aspects of this policy in accordance with the SC order has cleared
the draft. The final report has been sent for the approval of the
Chief Minister. It is expected to be cleared within a week to ten
days time,” said a senior revenue department official .
“As
per the new policy, no new gochar land will be given for industrial
or commercial purpose. It will be given only in the case of a very
high public interest or in cases where commercial interests are
getting affected if a small pocket of gochar land is between a large
piece of land, the officer added.
The officer further informed that
the order was very clear that the pastoral land is strictly for
community use and that resources belonging to the village community
shall not be given for any industrial or commercial use. However, the
land could be used for building healthcare centers and schools which
are for the “larger public good”.
Another issue according to the
official is that, some pastoral land have now come within urban
areas. The land cannot be classified as pastoral land under this new
policy and will therefore be used for public utilities.
Over the years the state
government had sold thousands of hectares of gochar land to private
industries.
This new policy was initiated
following the Supreme Court order in the case of Jagpal Singh &
others vs State of Punjab & others regarding the industrial and
commercial use of public resources like pastoral land, waste land,
ponds etc. against the interest of the local community.
As against the 39.56 lakh hectare
of grazing land required as per the state government’s own
standards for cattle, the state has only an estimated 8.5 lakh
hectare.
The state therefore has a massive
deficit, and according to the state government’s data atleast 424
villages in the state have no pastoral land. Encroachment over
pastoral land is also becoming a serious problem in the state.
According to Gujarat government’s data, 50,771 encroachments in
around 16,000 villages were reported as of September 2010. Out of
which 36960 encroachments are more than five years old.
Veteran Gandhian campaigner out to save grazing land in Dehgam
ReplyDeleteTNN Jun 28, 2012, 05.04AM IST
DEHGAM (AHMEDABAD): Vinubhai Amin, a veteran Gandhian, is out to save the village grazing land in Dehgam. A Sarvodaya movement participant, Amin, has already started the fight to save this piece of grazing (gauchar) land in Lavad village, where Rakshashakti University is proposed.
To lend a hand in the fight to save the village common land of Lavad, he has invited Arvind Kejriwal, Team Anna's core committee member. Amin says Kejriwal will lead a rally from Gandhinagar to the village where he will address the gathering.
This is Amin's the third campaign. Associated with various non-government institutions, he has managed to bring in high-profile people to campaign for the causes he champions. For saving the grazing land of Vatva and Vasna Rathod, where 40 acres were allotted to a mineral water plant, he had called deputy municipal commissioner of Mumbai, G R Khernar, for campaigning.
In 1997, when Keshubhai Patel was the chief minister of the state, about 40 acres of land was given for the mineral plant in Kadodara village. An agitation was launched against the acquisition and when Suresh Mehta took over as the CM, the government cancelled the contract with the mineral plant and took away the land in Kadodara. However, the plant was allocated land in Vatva and Vasna Rathod villages. "Again we took up the matter and Khernar was called. The matter is in the high court and the villagers are still using the area as grazing land."
Amin, who is not associated with any political party, claims that he had been conducting campaigns solely to save common lands belonging villages. "Whether is a BJP government or that of the Congress, I will fight to save the grazing lands," he says.