Desai informed that the one-member committee, headed by former bureaucrat KP Bakshi, in his report has recommended curtailing use of discretionary powers to decide on such de-notifications.
Maharashtra industries minister and Shiv Sena veteran Subhash Desai on Saturday clarified that the decisions with regard to de-notification of land was aimed to benefit farmers and not to favour private developers. He said he had suggested way back in September 2016 to do away with the discretionary powers enjoyed by the minister and officers to denotify lands. He informed that the one-member committee, headed by former bureaucrat KP Bakshi, in his report has recommended curtailing use of discretionary powers to decide on such de-notifications.
Desai said, "Merely 31.50 hectare (77.83 acre) was denotified from Gonde Dumala and Wadivare villages in Igatpuri, Nashik and not 12,565.48 ha (31,050 acre) as alleged by opposition parties. There was no malafide intention. The decision to de-notify was taken purely to help farmers as the land was under "scheduled land" category declared by the President of India considering the larger population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The gram panchayats had opposed the land acquisition citing "scheduled land". Besides, the Nashik district collector in his report, submitted way back in December 2013, had suggested that land should be de-notified also because the villagers were demanding higher compensation."
He was speaking to this correspondent, especially after he was given a clean chit by CM Devendra Fadnavis on the concluding day of state legislature's budget session on Wednesday.
Desai claimed that several opposition leaders were at the forefront to move calling attention motion, proposing the denotification of various lands across the state during the budget session." The opposition parties indulged into mudslinging but now stand thoroughly exposed," he said.
He informed that during his tenure, between 2015 and 2017 about 7,767 ha of land was de-notified considering difficulties in industrial development. "However, during the Congress-NCP rule between 2002 and 2014 a total of 20,716 ha of land was de-notified. In my case total area was denotified but my predecessors had denotified pockets," he said.
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