PIL against commercial use of Surat land pending before HC

Court had stayed govt bid to develop the agricultural land for tourism, entertainment infrastructure

The government’s decision to transfer 1,100-acres of land to the Tatas for the Nano car project from an area, the Anand Agriculture University (AAU) was supposed to use for agricultural research, has not hit any roadblock so far. But an earlier edition of such a move by the government is lying foundered on legal shoals.

The Gujarat government had acquired 65,000 sq metres of land from the Cotton Research Centre run by the Navsari Agricultural University (NAU), located at one of Surat's prime locations on Ghod Dod Road, barely two years ago.

The Gujarat High Court accepted a PIL that maintained that no land meant for agricultural research could be given away for a commercial project, and stayed the government’s move. It still remains stayed, and the next hearing in the case is scheduled for October 21.

The court came into the picture after the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) released an advertisement inviting expression of interest to develop the said piece of land for tourism and entertainment infrastructure. Incidentally, the Cotton Research Station, established by the East India Company in 1896, had carried out research on indigenous varieties of cotton seed on that land, before it was handed over to the Gujarat Agricultural University, and thereafter to NAU.

After the PIL was moved, the Chhatrala Hotel Group, which staked its claim for ‘developing’ that property, joined the issue as a respondent, along with the Gujarat government, GIDC and NAU. The petitioner, a local farmer, told Newsline on conditions of anonymity that he was now under tremendous pressure to back off.

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