Gujarat govt makes land under approved town planning schemes

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.