Tamil Nadu Passes Bill To Consolidate Government Lands For Large Projects

The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday passed a bill seeking to streamline the process of consolidating government lands for large projects of significance for the state, and also to effectively protect water bodies by regulating the process of exchange of land involving water bodies.

Tabling the Tamil Nadu Land Consolidation (for special projects) Act, 2023, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister K K S S R Ramachandran said the existing procedures pertaining to consolidation and disposal of government lands, such as exchange, alienation, re-routing, assignment, and lease, have evolved over two centuries through executive instructions issued from time to time, right from the colonial days. 

The land is also governed by various statutes such as local body acts, which vest government land in such local bodies.

"This multiplicity of executive instructions and references to land in multiple laws lead to delay and uncertainty in consolidation of lands leading to time and cost overruns and loss of public money," he said.

Further, water bodies need to be protected in the public interest, hence the bill, he said. 

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