The Gujarat government Thursday issued a circular that, industry players say, will help regularize more than 30,000 illegal structures located in various industrial estates operated by state-run Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).
The announcement will cover all illegal constructions done till January 12, 2023, in over 70,000 industrial units in 220 GIDC operated industrial estates and will regularize these by imposing a penalty or impact fee.
However, neither Industries Minister Balwantsinh Rajput nor officials from the industries and mines department who were at the formal announcement in Gandhinagar could put a figure to the number of illegal industrial structures in the state.
Rajput also asked industry representatives to ensure illegal structures are not built in future after the government regularizes the existing ones. However, this is not the first time the Gujarat government is regularizing illegal industrial constructions.
The direction to regularize illegal industrial constructions comes three weeks after the newly elected Bhupendra Patel government in Gujarat passed. ‘The Gujarat Regularization of Unauthorized Development Bill 2022’ that sought to regularize illegal constructions in residential, commercial and industrial segments. However, the legislation does not cover GIDC industrial estates.
The regularization does not cover industrial units of hazardous or obnoxious nature. No regularization will be done for constructions beyond the plot boundary and if safety of building or surrounding area has been unduly compromised. Change of purpose or use and additional height of a building shall not be regularized.
Read Also: https://www.vibesofindia.com/gujarat-govt-employee-forges-salary-papers-to-raise-his-own-pay/
