Centre to amend law for swift implementation of land pooling policy in Delhi

According to the proposed amendment, it will be mandatory for land owners to participate in the land pooling policy in sectors where minimum threshold of participation

The Centre has decided to amend the Delhi Development Act, 1957 for effective implementation of the land pooling policy, which is aimed at meeting the city’s housing requirement in a planned way, said Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said land pooling is an important policy. (PTI)

According to the proposed amendment, it will be mandatory for land-owners to participate in the land pooling policy in sectors where minimum threshold of participation (70% of the land required to create a sector) has been achieved.

As per the policy, “In order to ensure unified planning, servicing and subdivision/share of the land in a sector as per Land Policy and Regulations, a minimum of 70% contiguous land of the developable area within the sector, free of encumbrances, is required to be pooled to make the sector eligible for development.”

While announcing the ministry of housing and urban affairs’ decisions for Delhi in a press conference, Puri said, “Land pooling is an important policy and we are getting a good response from people. But we are facing some hurdles in its implementation. We have decided to address them and bring in amendments.”

The policy, which was notified twice in 2013 and 2018, has been hanging fire mainly due to the clause regarding the minimum requirement of land--the need for 70% contiguous land parcels to create a sector--for its implementation. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has been struggling to meet this criterion, as some land-owners are unwilling to give up their land.

Also, the Delhi government’s revenue department will continue to carry out mutation of property (changing title of the property) till the time DDA notifies the layout plan of the land pooling sector. Currently, since villages identified for land pooling are not under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government, it cannot carry out mutation of property, and neither can the DDA, which does not maintain land records.

The policy will be implemented in 110 urbanised villages located on the outskirts of the city. Close to 1.7 million dwelling units are expected to be constructed in the next two decades in areas such as Mundka, Baprola, Najafgarh, Alipur, etc. To begin with, 16 priority sectors—each measuring 100 acres-- are being developed in north and northwest Delhi.

While the land-owning agency has got 7,619.95 hectares of land from land-owners across 110 villages, it has not been able to create any sector as it doesn’t have 70% contiguous land parcels, officials said.

Explaining the draft amendment, Manish Gupta, vice-chairman of DDA,said, “To address this bottleneck, a provision for mandatory land pooling has been proposed, which means the inclusion of land in the scheme whether or not the land-owner concerned has voluntarily participated in the policy. This will help plan the area better.”

According to ministry officials, the Centre can declare mandatory land pooling “even if minimum threshold participation (70% of land sectors) has not been achieved to ensure time-bound planned development” in the city.

Last year, land-owners raised the issue of double payment of stamp duty on land transactions. As per the policy, there are currently two land transactions—one when the landowner gives the land to the consortium and the second when the developed land is returned to the landowner. Land-owners also questioned the Delhi government’s decision to stop the mutation of property in villages where land pooling is taking place.

To address these issues, HT reported last June that the DDA has sent a proposal to amend the DD Act. However, the amendments are yet to be brought in.

Gupta said, “All the bottlenecks will be addressed by an amendment in the Act. As amending an Act is a lengthy process and will take some time, it has been decided to issue conditional notice to allow planning the sectors and forming a consortium (a mandatory component for the implementation of the policy). It is also proposed that a land pooling officer/urban regeneration officer will be appointed to facilitate implementation of land pooling.”

According to experts, changes in the Act are needed to give it legal provisions.

Sabyasachi Das, former planning commissioner in-charge with DDA, said , “The present Act doesn’t provide any legal backing for land pooling. Therefore, suitable changes are required in the Act as land pooling is one of the key development models for planned development. How will development work be carried out if the owner of one land parcel refuses to participate in the process? It is difficult for government agencies to acquire land now. A solution has to be found to address this issue.”

Last year, the DDA came out with additional development control norms for land pooling allowing plotted residential development, higher Floor Area Ratio (FAR), provision for transferable development rights, etc. to get people to participate.

Under the policy, 40% of the pooled-in land will be earmarked for essential services and civic infrastructure. Service providers will develop parks, roads, social infrastructure, etc. The developer will get 60% of the total pooled-in land, of which 53% will be residential; 5% commercial and 2% will be earmarked for public and semi-public facilities. DDA and other service providers will get 40% of the land for developing civic infrastructure.