The State government on Wednesday notified the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Rules, 2020, which prescribed four new functions for the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Authority.
The rules notified on Wednesday provided for constituting a seven-member technical committee that would assist the authority to recommend to the government whether to omit or include industries under the Second Schedule provided in the Act within the zone. The committee would be headed by the Agricultural Production Commissioner and the Secretary to the Government in the Agriculture Department, who would be the ex-officio chairperson.
The other functions of the authority, headed by the Chief Minister, would be “to suggest measures to safeguard the natural surface, soil and water, suggest measures to safeguard the livelihood of farmers in the protected agricultural zone, and recommend the area for inclusion in the protected agricultural zone.”
One of the newly-included functions of the Authority is to “suggest and recommend the agro-based and allied industries that may be established in the protected agricultural zone”.
A senior officer told The Hindu: “The rules have been notified only to provide legal strength to the Act in its implementation. It has included some more functions for the Authority, which was provided for in the Act.”
The Director of Agriculture (Member Secretary), the Director of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, the Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, the Director of Industries and Commerce, the Director of Animal Husbandry and the Director (Research) in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University are the ex-officio members of the technical committee.
On February 21 this year, the State government enacted the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Act, 2020, with objectives to use the available agricultural lands for sustainable development of agriculture and ensure that the agricultural activities were not unduly constrained by non-agricultural use or other development and several other objectives.
