Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today allayed fears that the government will bypass the Land Transfer Act with the implementation of the Meghalaya Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA).
“I want to make it clear on the floor of the house there is no question of bypassing the Land Transfer Act,” Sangma said in the Assembly. “Meghalaya Investment Promotion Agency will never bypass the Land Transfer Act,” he added while replying to the short duration discussion by Mawryngkneng MLA Heaving Stone Kharpran on the proposed conversion of forest land into an industrial estate in Byrnihat by the government.
The Chief Minister said that the Land Transfer Act has protected the people of Meghalaya for years and there is no way an agency of the government can overrule an act passed by the Assembly. Instead, MIPA will follow the same provisions that have guided the MIDC, MTDC, MeECL, etc.
The CM said that MIPA was introduced by the government since it realised that the Single Window Agency is the Industries Department-based nodal agency.
Giving examples, Sangma said that if in the future investors want to construct private colleges and universities with investments of hundreds of crores of rupees, the Industries Department may not have the necessary information regarding what standards or yardsticks should be followed.
He said that the government requires the institutionalisation of systems, things that will follow a process, so that there is ease of doing business. Sangma assured the house that the government will move forward with the particular proposal only if the local people feel they are comfortable with the plan.
The CM also informed the Assembly that, according to records available with the government, the 137 acres proposed to be converted into state-of-the-art industrial estate at Byrnihat is not forest land.
Earlier, Kharpran said that while one talks about the need for industrial growth and economic expansion, there is a need to strike a balance between environment and development.
The Mawryngkneng MLA said that the proposed land at Byrnihat is a green cover, playing a key role in soil and water conservation and air purification. Kharpran said that there is a need to protect Byrnihat which has now become infamous for being one of the dirtiest places in India.
He also asked the government if the environmental impact assessment has been done to assess the long term consequences of this proposed project and whether the local community had been consulted before taking any decisions.
Nongkrem MLA Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, who like Kharpran is also of the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP), said that the VPP was made to understand that the government was carrying out the project surreptitiously by asking staff to leave the premises of the Conservation Training Institute, which is meant to make way for the industrial estate.
He also called for the state government to work with neighbouring Assam through an inter-state council to improve the environment in the border area as creating more industries in the “most polluted area in India” would be a disaster for the people living there.
