Manufacturers up in arms against govt over renewal of salt pan lease

Rajkot: The salt manufactures in Gujarat are up in arms against the state government over procedure laid down for the renewal of salt pan leases and have threatened to halt supply of salt if their demands were not satisfied.
A Namak Satyagrah Samiti, comprising on members of the Indian Salt Manufacturers’ Association (ISMA), has been formed to deal with the issue. The decision to stop supply of salt to the domestic market will be taken during March 7 meeting of the samiti in Ahmedabad. There are over 1,200 salt pans in Kutch which are owned by 250 salt manufacturers.
Over 80% of salt manufactured in India comes from Gujarat, which produces 2 crore tonne of salt annually. Industry sources said that if the salt manufactures decide to halt supply, it could lead to severe shortage of the essential commodity in the domestic market.
The manufacturers have been demanding decentralization of salt pan lease renewal process since past one decade. But ISMA said that in its notification of February 28, the state government had failed to fulfil their demands.
According to ISMA, till 2011 the Kutch collector had powers to renew lease of salt pans up to 350 acres. But the state government changed it and reduced collector’s powers for renewal to 10 cares, for renewals and new lease the manufacturer had to approach the revenue department in Gandhinagar.
ISMA members had met with chief minister Vijay Rupani in August last year with their demands and how most of the manufactures had been forced to come to Gandhinagar for renewal. During the meeting, delegation of power of renewal up to 350 acres was discussed and also demand was raised for abolition of non-agriculture tax of 10 paise per sq m. The manufacturers said that they had got the assurance from the government that their demands will be consider.
But the new notification allows the collector renewal rights up to 100 acre, while the power of granting new leases rests with the revenue minister. For renewal above 100 acres it would require approval of the chief minister and for new leases the cabinet has give a nod.
The convener of Namak Satyagrah Samiti, Bachu Aahir said “We had asked government to decentralized the processed but the government has further centralized the entire process. The new notification will not help majority of the manufacturers. We have called an urgent meeting of our members to decide on giving ultimatum to the government and stop the supply.”
Besides this, Aahir said they were being compelled to obtain no objection certificate from the Border Security Force (BSF), fisheries department and others. “It’s not easy for a small manufacturer to obtain these certificate from all the agencies. As such these are not required under the policy.”