SHWETA KAMAT
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PANJIM: Alarmed by reports that land allocated for industrial projects is either diverted for other purposes, left unutilized or underutilized, the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) is proposing a blanket ban on transfer of all industrial plots in future.
GIDC’s Transfer of Industrial Plot Regulation, proposed to be notified shortly, stipulates that owners of plots ~ which are on government premises~ cannot sell or sub-lease them to anyone. Besides, owners who have bought the plots in the name of industrial development will now have to prove that they are actually setting up an unit there.
GIDC Managing Director F O Hashmi said that the new regulation would make it mandatory for the persons to whom plots are allocated to utilize 30 per cent of the plot area along with carrying out certain portion of production activities, before putting up papers for transfer.
Hashmi said that 10 to 15 percent of plots located along all 22 industrial estates of Goa have remained unutilized or underutilized for years. “It was shocking to know that the industrial plots were bought long ago and they are still lying unutilised. The owners sniffing hefty profit margins, sell it at high rates. All this happened since there were some loopholes in the earlier rules,” he stated.
The managing director informed that corporation is currently engrossed in identifying the number of plots which have remained unutilized or underutilized. “Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, soon after taking over as GIDC chairman had directed to keep all the transfer cases on hold, including the ones cleared by the Screening and Review Committee (SRC) formed during the erstwhile Congress regime,” he said.
Currently, there are around 100 applications pending with the GIDC for last two years. All these applications were cleared by SRC. The decision on these applications would be taken in the forthcoming board meeting, scheduled on February 22.
Hashmi said ‘in cases where plots remained unutilized with partial construction and production, the government might give them more time for transfer while in case of those plots which remained completely vacant, they can be surrendered back to the corporation”.
