Faced with a paucity of land, the State government has directed all the deputy commissioners (DCs) of the districts to hand over land located in and around industrial areas to the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) ahead of Invest Karnataka - 2016.
About 13,000 acres of government land has been identified across 20 districts, including Bengaluru Urban, for this purpose. The DCs have been directed to complete the process of handing over the land by December 15.
“So far about 1,703 acres have been handed over to KIADB. About 11,300 are yet to be provided. The land will be merged with respective industrial areas and allotted to investors,” KIADB special deputy commissioner Rangappa said.
KIADB currently has only about 5,000 acres ready-to-allot land (land acquired after completing the acquisition process) in the State. Another 8,000 acres are under various stages of acquisition. The government wants to add 13,000 acres so that it can flaunt the availability of land during the investors’ meet scheduled to be held on February 3 and 4 next year.
In 2012, the then government had claimed it had about 46,000 acres available at the time of organising the Global Investors’ Meet - 2012.
Though these parcels of government land were notified for acquisition many years ago, the Revenue department, which is the owner of the land, had not handed them over to KIADB. The government has to first grant the land to enable the Revenue department to hand it over to KIADB. But the subsequent governments had not pursued it. For instance, about 5.09 acres of government land located at Hebbala industrial area in Mysuru was notified way back in 1981. But the Revenue department had not handed it over to KIADB.
Concept dropped
The government has decided to do away with the concept of land bank fearing criticism from the Opposition parties and the farming community. in 2012, the Congress, led by Siddaramaiah, had vehemently opposed the BJP government for acquiring farmlands under the land bank concept. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was then the leader of the Opposition. The then government had proposed to acquire 1,21,286 acres under land bank.
KIADB chief executive officer B S Shekarappa said KIADB was setting up a GIS-based database of the availability of industrial land in the State. Investors will be able see the availability of land anywhere in the State online. It will not only be a user-friendly system but also transparent, he added.
Warming up for GIM
About 13,000 acres of govt land to be handed over to KIADB.
The land is being handed over as part of preparations for the investors’ meet.
The government has done away with the land bank concept.
A GIS-based database of availability of land is being prepared.
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