Bill to stop non-agriculture use of farm lands

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government will soon bring a legislation to prevent non-agriculture activities on farm lands.

"The government is drafting a bill in this regard," Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat told reporters here on Sunday.

The legislation might include a provision to acquire all agriculture land left abandoned by owners, the Minister said.

"The bill will spell out government's agriculture policy. The legislation will also ascertain whether farm lands can be provided for SEZs and other industrial purposes," Rawat said.

"Our main aim is to protect the agriculture land which is falling in the hands of land mafia and builders," he said.

The Minister said latest figures showed that the land use pattern of nearly 24,000 hectares of agriculture land had changed during the past seven years.