80% of saltpans operating without lease renewal: ISMA

  • | Saturday | 24th March, 2018

These saltpan lease holders blame the state government policy for creating hurdles in the renewal process. Currently government renews lease for 10 years, but after the notification, government did not issue the guidelines for renewal process,” Raval claimed. Rajkot: In a state that accounts for 70% of country’s total salt production, 80% of saltpans are technically operating ‘illegally’. Manufacturers are demanding that the lease renewal powers be given to district collector’s office for land up to 350 acre.“In October 2017, government agreed to renew saltpan lease for 30 years. Small saltpan owners, who are salt workers themselves, can’t reach Gandhinagar and because of these hurdles 80% saltpans are being operated without lease renewals.”The saltpan lease holder has to pay lease amount to the mamlatdar office, royalty and cess to industries department.

Rajkot: In a state that accounts for 70% of country’s total salt production, 80% of saltpans are technically operating ‘illegally’. Gujarat produces 286 lakh tonne salt per year and 5 lakh people are engaged in salt industry directly and indirectly.There are nearly 12,500 saltpans along the coastal belt of Kutch and Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) and lease of nearly 80% of these pans has not been renewed since a decade. These saltpan lease holders blame the state government policy for creating hurdles in the renewal process. A meeting between members of the Indian Salt Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and concerned ministries will be held on March 27to resolve the issue.State government started allotting land on lease for salt production in 1964. These leases were renewed more than three times, but after 2005 government changed the policy for renewal.President of ISMA B C Raval said, “The whole process of lease renewal, which was earlier done at the level of district collector, has been centralized at Gandhinagar. Collectors had power to renew leases for land less than 10 acre. But now they (government) ask us to produce no objection certificate (NOC) from the Border Security Force (BSF), forest department and Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB). Small saltpan owners, who are salt workers themselves, can’t reach Gandhinagar and because of these hurdles 80% saltpans are being operated without lease renewals.”The saltpan lease holder has to pay lease amount to the mamlatdar office, royalty and cess to industries department. They used to obtain NOC from mamlatdar, industries department and district development officer for lease renewal.A salt manufacturer in LRK Bacchu Ahir said, “It’s not possible for us to move from one government department to another to obtain the NOC. Moreover, these departments don’t know on which land they need to issue the NOC?”Salt manufacturers are demanding that government ask the collector to obtain approval from Gandhinagar on lease renewal application instead of asking producers to go to Gandhinagar.Of the 12,500-odd saltpans, 10,000 are spread over 10 to 350 acre. The saltpans having land less than 350 acre fall under the category of small-scale industry. Manufacturers are demanding that the lease renewal powers be given to district collector’s office for land up to 350 acre.“In October 2017, government agreed to renew saltpan lease for 30 years. Currently government renews lease for 10 years, but after the notification, government did not issue the guidelines for renewal process,” Raval claimed. As they do not have any documents regarding lease renewal, manufacturers are finding it difficult to get finance from the banks.The salt manufacturer also wants the renewal process to be digitized so that they can make online payment for royalty, lease amount and to obtain the NOC certificate.

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