Gujarat High Court seek state's reply in land allotment for salt production

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the state government after a public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the allotment of huge tracts of land in Bhavnagar to newly formed companies for production of salt came up for hearing. The petition filed by Arvind Rathod was taken up by the division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav, which sought a reply from the state government on the issue by February 25.

According to the petitioner, many of the companies which have been allotted the land have a capital of less than Rs 5 lakh and recently came in the market and had applied for land admeasuring more than 18,000 acres for salt production. It is the contention of the petitioner that as per a government resolution, the state government is supposed to reserve some part of the land available for the purpose to salt pan workers.

The petitioner has also argued that as per the resolution, companies were to be given least preference in the allotment and land. However, the authorities instead of giving priority to the salt pan workers have given priority to companies for allotment of land. He is also seeking strict action against the government officials who are responsible for the illegal allotment of land to companies.