The revenue department of the state government has received 56,566 applications in two years – 2019 and 2020 – for converting agricultural land into non-agricultural use.
This information was provided by state revenue minister Kaushik Patel on Saturday, in reply to a series of questions by Congress MLAs in the ongoing budget session of the Gujarat assembly.
According to a written reply in the assembly, applications were made for converting 57.73 crore square metres of agricultural land to other use in 2019 and 2020.
The government granted permission to convert 16.80 crore square metres of agricultural land in 2019 and 13.47 crore square metres in 2020.
This implies that of the applications for converting 57.73 crore square metres of land from agriculture use to non-agriculture use, the government gave permission to convert 30.27 crore square metres of agricultural for non-agricultural use.
The minister, in his written replies, informed the assembly that the state government earned revenue of Rs 1,153.33 crore in 2019 and Rs 898.95 crore in 2020 through grating permission to convert agricultural land to non-agricultural use.
