Vedanta-Foxconn impact: Stay on 183 of 191 industry proposals lifted

A senior official from the Chief Minister’s Office confirmed to The Indian Express that the stay in 183 land allotment cases has been lifted and the remaining 8 cases were being reviewed by the state government. “We are working on the remaining cases as well and hope to issue directions regarding the same in the coming time,” he said. The total investment on hold due to review of 191 cases is as much as Rs 12,000 crore.

On August 3, 2022, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office had put on hold land allotment decisions for various projects announced after June 1, 2022. A government resolution to this effect was issued on August 8. It was directed that all such proposals cleared by MIDC should be presented to the industries department for review. Both Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said the decision was taken to ensure that no decision in haste was taken while making land allotment for the projects.

According to sources in the industries department, the review process did not yield wrongdoings in the allotment of land parcels for 183 projects. “The process is online. There is hardly any scope of illegality while distributing. The real challenge is to ensure that once distributed, the land parcels are put to the intended use and industry is set up at the earliest,” said the official.

The review process had delayed further sanctioning of more than 330 proposals pending with the MIDC. “After clearing earlier ones, work on these pending proposals can begin,” he said.