The Meghalaya Government today approved the new 'Meghalaya Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2012' replacing the earlier 1997 one to address the issue of land-alienation.

“We have carefully structured this policy in a manner that land available for industry will not have any outright transfer ... all land made available for any investment in the state for industry will be only on lease basis via Government,” Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

If the land was not used, it would revert back to the Government, he said.

The land provided would be commensurate to the actual need by industries, the Chief Minister said, adding that some industries acquired much more land than required which increased alienation of land.

With the new policy in place, the Government wants to promote local entrepreneurs to set up small and micro industries especially on the Indo-Bangla border of the state which were ‘difficult areas’.

He said, “We want to encourage establishment of industries attracting investment in difficult areas such as the areas bordering Bangladesh”.

“We have structured a 100 per cent financial assistance for project preparations for such small and micro enterprises.

This is intended to encourage our people for pre-feasibility studies and DPR preparations”.

Besides, the policy would have special economic zones in identified areas to promote better investment.

“Special programmes will be in place for small and micro entrepreneurs for any kind of enterprise particularly related to our local items,” he said.

The policy will be immediately notified and made available on the website, he said.

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