Posted on 11/01/2019
Land Pooling
AuthorSwati Sharma
In Layman’s term, when a sizeable number of landowners agree to give their land to civic or private authorities for infrastructure development purposes, in return for quantifiable and tangible benefits is what we refer to as “Land Pooling”. It is important to note that the land pooling is not an alien concept to our country. Before coming to the capital city New Delhi, this idea had been implemented in other states as well, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra to name a few. The designated government authority is given the role of building the civic infrastructure on the pooled land, which further employs the services of authorized and reputable developer entities, who are responsible for end to end construction of the project. In lieu of their land, the landowners receive an amount of compensation and along with that the land at a different location in the city in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act.
Land Pooling will replace the process of Land Acquisition in which government acquires land by giving a fixed compensation to the owners. With complaints of low compensation and forceful acquisition, land acquisition system became unpopular in the last few years. Many infrastructure projects came to halt due to land acquisition issues such as:-
The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train project in Gujarat is likely to miss the December 2018 deadline for acquiring land due to farmers resistance and protest. The development of the Navi Mumbai International Airport has also been slowed down due to affected people being unwilling to give up their land, referring to the unfavorable conditions of their resettlement location and less compensation amount. It is undoubtedly true that, in India, agricultural land provides employment opportunities, so
the protests and resistance from farmers and tribals for development are understandable. We can not deny the fact that land acquisition continues to be the biggest hindrance in the country's economic growth.
Authorities thought of creating greater India, but then there is opposition from various groups. Acquiring the lands for development often comes as a tough task for government. As people are not ready to relinquish their lands, land pooling has emerged in our country as a logical alternative to direct land acquisition.
Some examples of land pooling include:-
? Gujarat is one of the pioneers of the land pooling for several decades. Recently, Dholera Special Investment Region pooled land from farmers and gave them a share of profits. The landowner gets back 60% of the land.
? Pune’s iconic Magarpatta city which was once an agricultural land was owned collectively by 120 families of farmer community and 800 individuals. The central agency of Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company Limited (MTDCCL) did the complete makeover of this region and gave a major boost to its real estate market. The original owners of the land are enjoying rental yields from their leased land till date.
? Andhra Pradesh Government has launched its land pooling scheme in December 2014 for acquiring the land for the new state capital. The government collected at least 33,000 acres of land from over 29 villages. It proposes to return on an average 30% of the developed land to the original landowners.
? Delhi Land Pooling Policy has also been approved by the Delhi Development Authority wherein around 19,000 hectares of land will be developed in Delhi. Landowners who will offer 2 to 20 hectares of land will get 48% of the land back and those who will offer more than 20 hectares will get 60% back.
Difference Between Land Pooling and Land Acquisition
? When the government acquires private land for the purpose of development and provides compensation and resettlement to the affected landowners, that’s called Land Acquisition but when many landowners have agreed to give their land for development to one authority, in return for certain benefits and after development, land is given back to the owner, that is called land pooling.
? Under the land acquisition, the land is acquired forcibly and it becomes the reason for disruption of residents. The pooling policy doesn’t interrupt the current residents.
? In land acquisition, the medium of exchange is money as compensation whereas in land pooling, it is land only. And the compensation offered under land acquisition is based on revenue rate not on market rate i.e. very less.
? In land acquisition, compensation will be given immediately whereas in land pooling, the owners have to wait for years to get full compensation.
? In land acquisition, some safeguard measures are to be followed making it a tedious process. But the land pooling is comparatively an easy way of collecting land for development.
Need for Land Pooling
The Indian growth story owes its success to the ever-growing urbanization in this country. But with loads of pros come few cons, one of which is the uncontrolled migration of people from villages to big cities. Since the current infrastructure of these cities is already under stress, this unmitigated flow of migrants adds to city woes. With limited land, demand far exceeding supply and limited income, the availability of affordable housing is the need of the hour. These new guests of the city expect a better living standard, basic civic amenities like good roads, street lights, cleanliness, parks, bus stands and other basic needs which further enhance the need of a policy where existing land is used for developing the added infrastructure i.e this new policy is expected to unlock huge parcels of land for development and affordable housing. Land pooling benefits the government as well as the landowners as it helps in speeding up the development of infrastructure and urban areas. It also includes providing
features such as tradable FSI i.e. Floor space index and Single window sanction mechanism.
Benefits of Land Pooling
Why should one go for it?
? The primary benefit of land pooling is that this is landowner friendly policy aimed at providing reasonable compensation and benefits to the landowners who pool in their land.
? To add to its user-friendly approach is the ‘No Forceful Acquisition” clause which gives the landowners the discretion to participate in this policy.
? When land is pooled, farmers would be able to get benefit from the infrastructure being developed on the land.
? Through land pooling, farmers can get profit from future development by retaining a share of the land.
? This policy brings better quality gated apartment projects at affordable prices.
? It also helps to restrict the increase of price in already developed areas including Noida and Gurgaon.
? It provides an opportunity for the provider of infrastructure and services to recover the sustained costs as well as to get access to land for this purpose.
? The proper administration of this scheme can provide increased equity in land distribution. It could also be a means of providing access to land for low-income housing.
? Land Pooling scheme requires the clarification of land ownership situation and an accurate land registration system. This will lead to increased public revenues from property taxation.
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