Land lease rules to be investor-friendly

The government has set the ball rolling for simplification of lease rules under the Himachal Pradesh village Common Lands Vesting and Utilisation Act 1974 and the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings Act 1972 so as to facilitate the flow of investment in the power sector.

The first meeting of the committee, constituted by the BJP regime to make the allotment of government land to the industry, power projects, cement plants and other projects easily, was held here on Thursday. The meeting was chaired by Chief Secretary Vineet Chawdhry, who heads the committee.

ISSUES

• It was pointed out that investors, especially independent power producers, had to spend four to five years to seek no-objection certificates (NOC) from various departments like Revenue, Irrigation and Public Health (IPH), Forest and the panchayats concerned. This delays the completion of the project.           
• The number of NOCs, mandatory for seeking clearance for a project, is likely to be reduced.
• The biggest problem, being faced by investors, is that while gram panchayat is willing to give NOC, it is practically impossible to evolve a consensus in the gram sabha.The problem was more grave in the power sector than industrial units as the plots given to the units were not covered under the lease rules.

GOVERMENT STAND

Besides reducing the number of mandatory NOCs, the government is also contemplating to fix a time to issue the certificates. This will help the investors to complete the formalities for setting up any project in a time-bound manner. In fact, several entrepreneurs, especially independent power producers (IPP), have urged the government from time-to-time to simplify these rules. The rules were revised in 2003 and now they will be further simplified as per the Chief Minister’s announcement in his Budget speech.
Government is also targeting power, tourism, industry and mining as the key sectors for generating revenue. As such, removing hurdles in investment is being seen as the first step to encouraging big investment in tourism, industry and hydro sector.

Eyeing investment

• It will facilitate the flow of investment in the power and other sectors
• It was pointed out that investors, especially independent power producers, had to spend four to five years  to seek no-objection certificates from various departments, this delays the completion of the project.
• The government is also planning to fix a time-frame to issue certificates.

By: Pooja Sharda