Powers decentralised, process to grant NA nod made easier

“The decentralised powers would make it easy for people who otherwise have to rush to the collector’s office for any small query, which only increased the crowd at the office,” said a senior official from the collectorate.

After the recent video-conferencing of all collectors and divisional commissioners with the state chief secretary, the project has got a push. Pune Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said the collectors of all five districts were present at the conference and the division of work would enhance the process of giving permissions as well.

Officials said they got at least 30 applications daily. The collector was till now the nodal officer to grant the permissions, and it was putting a huge burden on the incumbent who had to look into each case in great detail. “Dividing the powers would simplify the process and for every query the applicants would now have to approach the respective officer allocated for the area,” added the official.

For Pune division, five collectors and additional collectors, 32 SDOs and 58 tehsildars will be responsible for granting the permissions. They would have to first check the title of land, the permissions sought (whether it is for residential purpose, industrial or commercial purpose), the town planning approvals as well as clearances from the MSEB, PWD and others. De-centralisation would help the officials check and assess each case and take forward the process more speedily, added another official.

The maximum outlay period is 90 days but if the documents are in place, the individual would be granted the permission earlier — even within 30-60 days or less than that. The officials are expected to assess the application and scrutinise the documents within 15 days and send in their queries for hearing.

The district collectorate would now address the applications that were denied NA permission on substantive grounds. The grounds include those for setting up residential projects on land falling in agriculture zone; land falling under Urban Land Ceiling Act; or non-payment of premium for converting land from new tenure to old tenure.

Another category includes applications where the demand for converting an agricultural land into non-agricultural were rejected by government departments that did not provide no-objection certificate. All this will now be dealt with the designated officers.