The Odisha Government asked Collectors of all 21 districts to identify government and waste land to the tune of 50,000 acres for accommodating in-coming industries.
The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) also asked Collectors to identify additional 1,00,000 acres for undertaking compensatory afforestation.
“The creation of land bank is as per the provisions laid down in Industrial Policy Resolution 2007,” said IDCO in a letter to Collectors.
“Unobjectionable government land, unsurveyed government land, degraded waste land in contiguous patches should be identified for creation of such land bank,” it said.
The Corporation emphasized that establishment of other social infrastructure like housing, educational institutions, healthcare and entertainment facilities in and around the industrial areas were highly necessary for sustainability of the industries.
Although Comptroller and Auditor General of India had underlined the need for creating land banks for industrial purposes, it had pointed out that monitoring of land bank policy was poor in Odisha.
“Industrial Policy Resolution 2007 provided for framing a comprehensive land use policy to address issues concerning identification of land for industrial and allied purposes. It also provided for creation of Land Bank identifying suitable tracts of government land for orderly industrial growth,” CAG had said in its latest report on land for industrial use.
The apex audit industry said in the absence of a Land Bank for industrial use, identification of location of industries was left to the promoters of industries themselves. “Such selection of locations by the industries led to delays in the acquisition process,” it had pointed out.
According to CAG, during 2001-12, IDCO allotted 29769.482 acres of private land and 16963.412 acres of government land for 52 out of 89 MoU industries and for 54 out of 113 non-MoU industries. In 86 industrial estates (IEs), 4426.380 acres land was allotted to small industries up to March 2012. While 1914.921 acres of land were kept reserved for common utilities in the IEs, 1894.571 acres remained unallotted as of March 2012.
CAG, however, pointed out that the objective of implementation of the Land Bank Scheme to facilitate identification and transfer of land for industries remained largely unfulfilled.
Monitoring of end use of land was poor as instances of non-utilisation as well as diversion of land by small and medium industries for purposes other than intended were noticed.
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