New Delhi, March 15: MPs, including from the Congress, today asked the government to make stringent central laws to prevent diversion of farm land to non-agricultural use but the Centre sought to shift the responsibility to the states to check the trend.
“Land falls under purview of state governments and therefore, it is for states to bring in suitable policy/act/ legislation to check the conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes,” Minister of State for Agriculture Arun Yadav said in the Rajya Sabha replying to a Calling Attention Notice.
Rajeev Shukla (Cong) drew attention of the government to the situation arising out of utilisation of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
“About 27 lakh hectare of farm land has been directed to real estate projects. I think we need to bring in stringent central law, where states should be aligned, to stop the conversion,” he said.
—PTI