Gandhinagar: Gujarat government has today announced its decision to abolish non-agriculture (NA) certification process in the urban town planning (TP) scheme areas across the state. NA permission is necessary to convert agriculture land for other purpose like residential, commercial, industrial etc.

According to Nitin Patel, deputy chief minister and the state government spokesperson, the chief minister after discussion with the revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and other Minister in public interest decided to abolish NA process in all the urban areas where the final TP schemes have been implemented. From now onwards the concern town planning officer will recommend the collector to declare the areas as the TP in which all the survey numbers will be given automatic NA certification. Till date NA was required for every survey number now there will be no such need. It will be implemented in around 700 TP schemes in the state.

PTI report: Gujarat govt makes land under approved town planning schemes non-agricultural

Gandhinagar:In a major reform, the Gujarat government today announced that all land areas covered under the approved town planning schemes will be considered as non-agricultural (NA).

The government also exempted the individual plot owners, who want to build their houses of less than 125 sq mts, from seeking prior approval for construction.

“We have taken a decision that all land areas covered in the approved town planning schemes will be considered as non-agricultural (NA),” state Finance Minister and government spokesperson Nitin Patel said.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, “There were a lot of complaints regarding how difficult it was to convert agriculture land to non-agriculture for construction. When the final town planning scheme is approved, usage of each land plot in that TP scheme area is decided.”

Until now, permission was needed to be taken from local civic authorities for converting agriculture land to NA if the user wants it for any purpose other than agriculture.

“There are around 700 town planning schemes which are at present enforced in the state, and land owners in these TP schemes will be benefited by this decision of government,” Patel said.

He announced that small plot owners will not have to take the prior approval of authorities for passing the construction plan for building houses up to 125 sq metres.

“Once the construction gets over, they (owners) will just have to take Building Use (BU) permission from the local authorities,” he clarified.

Patel said both decisions will benefit the people to a great extent.

The minister said the government has also decided to have a common form for seeking commercial or residential construction permission across all the municipal corporations and municipalities.

“Till now different rules were adopted by different local civic bodies for giving construction permission. Requirements for clearance of construction activities varied from municipalities to municipalities as they had their individual rules.

“Now, we have decided to bring all the municipal corporations, urban development authorities and municipalities under one rule, whereby there will be one uniform form for seeking construction permission in areas under all these civic bodies,” Patel said.

In reply to a question whether the clutch of decisions would benefit the builders, Rupani said, “These decisions are taken keeping in mind welfare of people.” PTI

Highlights of the decision:

Gujarat government has approved over 700 TP schemes across the state. In such areas NA approval will no longer required for construction permission or development permission.

Entire scrutiny suitable to be done in the process of NA approval will be carried out by competent authority level (local authority) as per GDCR implementation.

State government land, public properties, charity and wakf properties, land suitable for premium, land regulated under legal or semilegal process are excluded from this decision, but the land which is privately owned and belongs to old sharat, land which is withought any litigation attached will get approval in easier way in limited time through single authoriry.

For such development/construction approval, the applicant will need to apply before the compatible officer locally. The details regarding the property will need to be declared through afidavit. Such competant authority will obtain No Objection Certificate(NOC) from the district collector after scrutiny of details. Applicant will not need to go to any other office. District collector will need to grant NOC in 30-day period after scrutiny of details.

On the basis of NOC, competent authority will be able to grant the approval for construction or development.

In order to ensure proper entry in revenur record, district collectors will separately issue orders regarding NA and do related procedures at district level. The land post approval will be converted into city survey. Property rights will be entered into property card of city survey for such land. This entire process will be considered in-house procedure of Revenue department.

All collectors, local authorities, district town planning officers are asked to strictly implement this decision.

CREDAI welcomes the announcement:

CREDAI, the apex body of Indian real estate developers and builders, has hailed the Gujarat governments historic decision to grant automatic non-agriculture (NA) clearance to areas counted as outgrowth towns as per 2011 Census in a major push to ease of doing business.

Definite corrections for the constructions under General Development Control Regulation (GDCR) Dwelling 2 Type have been initiated.

National President of CREDAI, Jaxay Shah said that the decision of incorporating areas declared under Town Planning Scheme of AUDA, not requiring non-agriculture (NA) clearance henceforth, will radically boost the confidence of the construction sector and further the cause of industrial development. Additionally, this will help meet the expectations of the people.

“With these positive measures, there will be a big relief to the long-pending concerns of people pertaining to housing and land as well as bring freedom from day-to-day difficulties for the small and marginal sections of the society. The decision will also motivate the real estate builders to work according to principles and set enhanced ethical standards, benefit of which will trickle down to the common man,” Shah said.

Consequent to today’s decision of the Gujarat government, affordable housing will receive a much-needed fillip and help the government achieve the objective of social welfare.

DeshGujarat