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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Sitting on a land pile, government plans policy for sale, lease by Vikas Dhoot

Sitting on a land pile, government plans policy for sale, lease by Vikas Dhoot

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published Published on Jan 23, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 23, 2012

The government, the largest owner of landed property in the country, is preparing a comprehensive land sale policy to raise revenues and check corruption in government-owned property deals. The finance ministry will shortly move a cabinet note for bringing in a new uniform policy on 'land alienation' by government agencies, with an eye on removing discretionary powers of individual ministers and bureaucrats, said a government official.

In big cities, large tracts of land valued at thousands of crores are owned by ministries of civil aviation, railways, defence and port trusts, along with other government agencies and public sector firms. For instance, the Ports Trust of India owns 6,300 hectares, the Airports Authority of India owns 20,400 hectares, the Railways owns 43,000 hectares of non-track land and the defence forces own 17.3 lakh acres. 

There has been a tremendous surge in the value of the land they hold, since this was allotted decades ago. But the absence of a clear policy and lack of transparent sale and lease norms often results in dodgy deals such as the recent Sukhna land scam, preventing the resource-constrained government from getting the right sum of money. 

"A unified policy for alienation of government land would soon be moved for the Cabinet's consideration," said a government official close to the development. "The group of ministers (GoM) on corruption, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has agreed that land available with central ministries should be inventorised and all alienation should take place through competitive and transparent e-auctions," the official said. 

Under the proposed uniform policy for land allotments and sale, government departments and agencies would have to optimise the use of land resources by using the maximum permissible floor area ratios and free up land for other developmental uses. 

The policy prefers outright sales of surplus land, wherever feasible, to long-term leases that are difficult to renegotiate and revise. Where leases are opted for, the estimated sale value of the land on the date of transfer could be recovered upfront with a nominal annual lease. 

Systems would also be put in place to give the government a share of any increase in the value of land due to changes in land use from, say, agricultural to commercial. Land-owning departments would be required to opt for transparent competitive bidding or e-auctions for land sales (or leases), especially for commercial and institutional land deals. Exceptions could be made for institutions like schools and affordable housing projects, where the auction method may price out genuine developmental needs. 

This proposed policy is the initiative of the GoM on corruption that was formed last year by the prime minister following a spat of scams such as in the Adarsh Housing Society, the 2G spectrum and the Commonwealth Games, that have taken the sheen off the current government. 

The GoM sought to clean up two critical areas that harbour the maximum scope for corruption - allocation of natural resources like spectrum, land and minerals; and public procurement worth lakhs of crores. "The land sector is very critical for the economy considering the high stakes involveda¦ (and) is characterised by apparent non-transparency and subjectivity in disposal policy of land assets," said the GoM-appointed committee on allocation of natural resources under former finance secretary Ashok Chawla. 

At present, all departments follow their own set of rules for land use or sales. The Airports Authority of India, for instance, has 51,000 acres of land across 126 airports it manages, but has no codified rules for allotting land. For 300 acres at 10 airports, the authority's board has opted for allotments at market rates for commercial purposes through competitive bidding. 

While the Mumbai and Calcutta Port Trusts have a lot of land under their domain, their land records are not easily available as they are over 200 years old, impacting their ability to dispose land assets. The dozen major ports in the country, with over 6300 hectares under their belt, follow a land policy revised as recently as January 2011 - under which ports can allot unutilised land on licence or lease basis as per approved land uses. Shipping Minister G K Vasan hinted at more systemic changes last week. "A further revision of the land policy is underway to bring in more transparency," he said on Thursday.


The Economic Times, 23 January, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/sitting-on-a-land-pile-government-plans-policy-for-sale-lease/articleshow/11596688.cms


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