SHILLONG, MAR 6: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said the land proposed to be converted into an industrial estate at Byrnihat is not a ‘recorded forest land’.
Sangma while replying to a short duration discussion said, “Let me clarify one basic misconception…that it is not a recorded forest land as of today.”
“Two, that it is not we just take this particular land and tomorrow itself industries will start. The only process we started as of now is to transfer this land from the soil and conservation department and horticulture department to the government. That is all. Nothing beyond that as of now,” he said. He said,”The reason why we are doing that is because this particular land is currently having some activity related to horticulture and some training programs.
There are two-three programs of training going on and as a government we felt that this land is being underutilized and that there is much more we can do with that and hence we decided one thing that this land should be given to the government.”
He said that the two departments will be given separate lands in other locations so that they are compensated for the land that is being transferred to the government.
“The total size of this land is not thousands of acres, it is 137 acres of which 127 acres belongs to the soil and conservation and 10 acres of the horticulture department,” Sangma said.
The chief minister clarified that the government’s intention is to make the area into a state-of-the-art industrial estate taking into account its prime location.
“The idea is to make a state-of-the-art industrial estate and the question of us bypassing or flaunting laws including environmental laws does not arise,” he assured.
“For any project that we would move forward in the future would require us to do an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and all procedures will need to be followed case to case. Now, the EIA does not arise but we will do that on a case to case basis if any project we take up in the future,” he added.