Gujarat govt sold/leased out 103.80 cr sq m land to industries in past two years

The Gujarat government has leased or sold a staggering 103.80 cr sq m of land to industries in the past two years, according to official figures from the state’s Revenue Department.

This includes 18.01 lakh sq m of ‘gauchar’ (grazing land), 33.36 sq m of ‘kharaba’ (wastelands), and 1.03 cr sq m of govt fallow lands (uncultivated government lands).

Official numbers reveal that these pieces of land were sold to industries.

If one were to combine the areas of gauchar, kharaba, and the govt fallow lands, the total size of this land would be large enough to accommodate the entire area of Ahmedabad twice.

Of the total land leased or sold by the state government in the last two years, 95.65 crore sq m of land is in Kutch district alone.

Official figures also indicate that 50 villages lose their gauchar land every year. Meanwhile, industries are being allotted 14.22 lakh sq m of land daily.

Twenty-eight years ago, there were 700 villages in Gujarat without gauchar land. Today, this number has skyrocketed to 2,800 villages.

As per the official rule, there should be 40 acres of gauchar for every 100 cows. However, there are 9,029 villages where there is less gauchar than the prescribed norm.