G.O.Ms.No.23, Launching of New Special Initiatives, 2018

What the government order does

The Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department issued G.O.Ms.No.23, dated 19 March 2018, to give focused attention to subjects that involve several sectors. Its purpose is to speed up important infrastructure and development projects and improve public services.

The department is expected to initiate or coordinate each Special Initiative. It may develop an initiative until it is ready to be transferred to the relevant administrative department, or discontinue it if it is not worth pursuing.

Subjects covered

G.O.Ms.No.23 identifies three Special Initiatives:

• Streamlining land acquisition and land alienation procedures, particularly for major projects, with the aim of substantially reducing processing time while following prevailing statutory requirements.
• Converting water bodies near Chennai from irrigation use to water supply.
• Identifying and improving important points where citizens interact with the government, with the aim of providing clean and efficient public services.

Relevance to landowners and buyers

The land related initiative may affect how government departments process land acquisition and land alienation for major projects. However, G.O.Ms.No.23 does not set out a revised land acquisition process, create property rights, approve any individual land transfer, or identify particular land parcels.

Existing statutory requirements must continue to be followed. A buyer, owner or professional dealing with land connected to a major project would therefore need to examine any later procedures or project specific action produced through the initiative.

Administration and implementation

G.O.Ms.No.23 authorises the Principal Secretary of the Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department to:

• Create working groups for each Special Initiative.
• Add officers from different departments to those groups on a part-time basis.
• Formulate specific, feasible and actionable steps.
• Identify the work required, the responsible authorities and, where possible, an implementation time frame.

The department was expected to complete the land acquisition and land alienation initiative within six months. The other two initiatives were expected to be completed within a year.

Named officers from the State Planning Commission and the Directorate of Land Reforms were assigned additional Special Initiatives responsibilities. The government order was issued with the concurrence of the Revenue Department.