Mumbai: Intending to open up more land in the state, the state government has decided to open land belonging to temple trusts for development for public purposes, including education and health.
A policy in this regard would be chalked out soon and the said amendment would be made in the Act. The revenue department has passed 74 proposals for opening up different lands for development purposes in last three years.
A step towards freeing up the temple trust land, the state Cabinet on Tuesday amended the existing Section 6 of the Hyderabad Atiyat Inquiries Act, 1952.
“This will allow the transfer of Devasthan Inam lands held by individuals and as many as 4,000 temple trusts to be used for public education and health purposes in the Marathwada region alone. However, the government will bring out a similar policy that would be implement in the entire state.
This will free more land across the state that can be utilised for public purposes,” an official from the revenue department said.
To tackle the issue of shortage of land for development projects, the current government has tried opening various kinds of land after coming to power.
In last three years, it has approved 74 proposals of de-reserving the land for development use. “This is the highest number of proposals approved by the government for a department in the last three years,” the official added.
The revenue department has also taken a few other decisions to boost land development. Seeking non-agriculture land tag has been made easier, as approaching the collector is no longer necessary.
In fact, a non-agriculturist can also now buy agriculture land. However, a few decisions related to land reforms are controversial and have been opposed by the activists. Last year, the Governor had issued a notification that the gram sabha’s nod wasn’t required for vital projects in tribal areas.
The move is expected to help in land acquisition for big projects like the bullet train and Samruddhi Mahamarg. However, according to activists, the decision is against the land rights of the tribals.
