Protesting against the proposed modification to the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) under the land pooling policy, the Federation of Housing Societies and Developers held a demonstration at the Delhi Development Authority on Thursday.
Raising concerns over DDA’s proposal to restrict the FAR under the land pooling policy to 180 as opposed to 400, that was mentioned in the 2013 notification, Satish Kumar Aggarwal, secretary of the Federation said, “The DDA has now arbitrarily proposed a modified policy which will have drastic consequences as it will become difficult for the commoners to get homes.”
“Decreasing the FAR would only lead to an increase in cost of the flats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s objective of affordable living to all will also not be achieved by this change. There are over 110 housing societies that will get affected” said Mr. Aggarwal.
Further, the federation also demanded that the External Development Charges (EDC) be waived.
“It has been proposed that the EDC has to be paid on the total pooled land despite surrendering 40% of the land. This is unjustified as we will not be able to pay the huge amount,” said Mr. Aggarwal.
R.P. Bhatia, president of the federation said, “In the 2013 notification, the concerns of farmers and developer entities were taken into account and a relaxation in terms of EDC was provided. However, from the proposed amendments, it seems that the DDA has gone back on its word. We have even approached the vice-chairman to take note of the matter.”
Urges PM to intervene
The federation has also written to the Prime Minister urging him to intervene in the matter. However, the urban body on Wednesday had said the public hearing on the land pooling policy will be held in July. “Individual hearing of the persons who have filed their objections, suggestions...will be held on July 2 and 3...” the DDA had said.
