Gandhinagar : Historic decision has been taken by CM Vijay Rupani on land grabbers in Gujarat. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has announced a strict implementation of the rules and regulations of the Gujarat Land Grabbing Prohibition Act to take legal action against land mafias who have illegally occupied government, common farmers, privately owned as well as public trusts and monasteries in the state. After the Cabinet approved the proposal of Land Grabbing Prohibition Act-2020, with the approval of the Governor, the Bill became an Act and now the Chief Minister is determined to implement its legal provisions in the state with immediate effect. The Chief Minister said that this government, which is transparent, sensitive and concerned about the poor-farmer-common man of Gujarat, has taken a historic decision and decided to strictly implement the legal provisions of the Land Grabbing Prohibition Act-2020 from Wednesday, November 16, 2020. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani gave details of these legal provisions. He made it clear in this regard that complaints of land grabbing by common land mafias of ordinary farmers and some incidents of red water flooding had come to the notice of the government.
Regardless of which, the state government has ensured the enactment of this strict criminal law with the firm intention of bringing such criminals-land grabbers-land mafias to justice and preventing them from being usurped by any land mafia. Strict punitive provisions of the law will now curb serious land grabbing incidents and land mafias will be banned from engaging in such criminal activities. Under the law, offenders will be liable to imprisonment for a minimum of ten years and a maximum of fourteen years from conviction, as well as a has made a provision of exorbitant fine. The Chief Minister further elaborated on the provisions which have been ensured to make the Land Grabbing Prohibition Act more comprehensive and stricter and to make it a conciliatory act to be enforced against the land mafias. The Chief Minister added that in such cases of land grabbing, it is imperative that the perpetrators be punished swiftly and justice be served. For this purpose, it has been decided to set up a special court to expedite the hearing of such land grabbing cases and punish the land mafias severely. Cases to be tried before such special courts have to be disposed of within a maximum of 6 months. In order to accelerate the all-round development journey of cities-towns-metropolises in Gujarat, the Chief Minister has sought to build the best of Gujarat through maximum use of land through industry-trade-agriculture-animal husbandry as well as employment opportunities.
