CM allays fear on land transfer, says investment authority will only lease out land

Shillong, Jan 15: The state Cabinet on Wednesday approved the amendment of Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Act, 2024, which seeks to ensure there is no ‘derogation’ of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1971 while promoting investments in the state.

“We are removing para 34 by adding this line that this Act shall not be in derogation of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1971,” chief minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters after the meeting.

He also announced the government’s decision to rename the Investment Meghalaya Agency (IMA) as Meghalaya Investment Promotion Authority (MIPA) through the amendment.

“The idea is to give this a better name and a better structure to the agency as we know the Act itself is called the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Ordinance and hence in line with the Act itself, we are calling the authority now the MIPA instead of IMA,” the CM added.

Sangma said that the decision was taken after a recent meeting held with the KHADC delegation led by its CEM Pyniaid Sing Syiem, which has raised certain concerns on the matter.

He informed that the government has decided to incorporate the suggestions given by the KHADC, which include the amendment of para 34 of the Act.

“I want to clarify that this particular clause Article 34 was very specific to the common application forms. Now in the past, the SWA requires certain applications to be made to them in certain forms, the MUDA requires application to be made in certain forms, MTDC also requires applications to be made in certain forms and hence, to avoid the amendment of all those 6-7 Acts to incorporate the provisions of this Act, we had put this provision in this Act to override those provisions in those Acts and the basic powers of this were very specific to the common application forms and did not go beyond that. I just want to clarify that but since it has created a confusion in the district council and other members and from the public, the government has decided to repeal this article or para 34 of this Act, which is creating this confusion,” the CM said.

Stating the Act has been passed to facilitate the entire process of investment in Meghalaya, Sangma said, “I have clarified in the past that earlier there used to be single window agency (SWA), which used to handle the different investment projects in the state but because of the wide spectrum of sectors, which also includes today the health sector, the agriculture sector, the tourism sector, the IT sector, the power sector and industry sector – the investment horizon has really broaden and hence, we needed a larger or a much more broader authority to look into this particular aspect and that is what has led to the creation of the Investment Meghalaya Agency (IMA) at that point in time. Accordingly the Act was passed.”

He continued: “And we are now going to amend the other provisions that is there in the SWA, the promotion policy or the tourism Act or other Acts, which were being affected by this, we will make the necessary amendments there and remove this particular para 34 to avoid any confusions among the people and adding one line to this in fact saying this particular Act shall not be in derogation of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1971.”

“We are specifically putting that clause to avoid any confusion among the public because we felt that there was a confusion on this because the district council and the CEM had mentioned this to us and hence, we are removing that para 34 and adding this line that this Act shall not be in derogation of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1971.”

On the concern regarding para 13 of this Act, Sangma said, “There is a specific paragraph that mentioned that wherever the forms and fees that have to be prescribed for clearances in any central laws, the applications shall be submitted to the central government. So in order to ensure that we take care the concerns of the KHADC and other members we are incorporating one more paragraph to this to say that provided further where any forms and fees have been prescribed for such clearances from the ADCs, the applications shall be submitted only in that very form along with the fees to be submitted.”

“The permission from the district councils have to be applied from the district councils. Since there was a confusion regarding that, we are introducing this paragraph very specifically to clarify that the applications, the permissions, all NOCs whatever required from the ADCs, will have to be taken up through the ADCs and separate forms will have to be applied to the respective ADCs, which was actually the procedures,” he said while adding “We want to clear the confusion so that nobody is confused that the question of bypassing the ADCs does not arise. For any kind of permissions that are required by these investing agencies will be taken up.”

Further, the CM said the government is also including one para in this Act, which is making it mandatory for employing local people.

“The section 2 (a) will read: “subject to the overall control and superintendents of the government, the governing council shall provide overall policy guidance and directions under this Act” then we added” that the incentives under the policies will be provided to industries, who are creating employment for local people (individuals, who are domiciles of Meghalaya). We are adding this to ensure that employment is given to the local people,” he added.

Also Read: Meghalaya LP school teachers to have better career growth

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