Three years after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) opened its window for landowners to apply for land pooling, the participation has been lukewarm, compelling the agency to extend the deadline from time to time.
According to a senior DDA official, the agency was facing hurdles in convincing landowners to participate, as most of them were unsure of the outcome of the policy. The primary glitch is about the contiguity of the pooled land.
“Sectors fulfilling eligibility criteria have seen 70 per cent participation while those sectors where pooling is not contiguous, participation is close to 80 per cent, “ he pointed out. Many landowners are keen to wait and watch the development in other sectors before taking a call.
The former DDA Commissioner for Planning, AK Jain, is of the opinion that the development proposed to take place under the land pooling policy is unlikely to take-off even in the next nine years.
“The DDA needs to revise its existing policy,” he said. Mr.Jain insisted the requirement of 70 per cent of the land to be contiguous needs to be dropped to make the policy implementable.
He said it was not possible to get total voluntary participation under the scheme because it is not practical. “Development projects require 100% of the land;30% of unpooled land has to be acquired for infrastructural works because 70% of the land is not sufficient for both -- construction of housing projects and developing the surroundings. “There is ambiguity in the nine-year-old policy; it needs to be tweaked,” he said.
Echoing a similar view, Satish Aggarwal of the Federation of Housing Societies and Developers in Delhi (Land Pooling), said that the DDA “is confused about how to bring its own policy to life”.
He added, “Their decision to modify the Floor Area Ratio (FAR), from 400 to 200, will increase the land cost and construction cost. It will only double the expenses for developers.”
Landowners unhappy
Spread across the north, north-west and south-west districts, 104 villages divided into six zones and further divided into over 100 sectors, have been identified for land pooling.
Dilbagh Singh, a landowner based in Zone-L’s Neelwal village, said the DDA policy “is problematic and misleading’‘. While 60% of the pooled land will be given to the landowners, five per cent of land will go towards the development of commercial facilities and two per cent for public facilities, he pointed out.
This would leave landowners with 53% of the pooled land that is expected to be used for residential development while effectively 40% would be surrendered to the DDA and other service providing agencies. “The external development charges (EDC) will have to be paid by the consortium of landowners or the developer. If The Delhi Development Act is amended, the participation can no longer be voluntary. So why should the landowners participate?” wondered Mr.Singh.
Paras Tyagi, who runs the public policy research organisation, Centre for Youth Culture and Law and Environment (CYCLE), said the EDC to be paid by landowners is “a big flaw” in the policy.
“The DDA never mentioned the amount that will have to be paid as EDC per acre; they maintain that it will be according to the market rate. Previously, the DDA had mentioned that it will be Rs. 2 crore per acre, and later went back on it. This is not financially feasible for the landowner,” he said.
Amendments
When contacted, the senior DDA official maintained that the required land would be acquired by the agency, while the cost would be borne by the consortium of landowners.
“We will hold negotiations to convince the remaining landowners to participate. If it does not succeed, the final option will be to acquire the land. The unpooled land will not be a hurdle as feared, and no development work will take place in those parts,” he said.
He said an amendment to the Delhi Development Act had been drafted and submitted to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. According to it, if 60-70% of participation is achieved in a sector, the remaining landowners will have no choice but to compulsorily pool their land. “If notified, this will help to overcome the low participation issue,” the official added.
Till January 24, 6903 applications were received and 7262.88 hectares of area was registered. The deadline has yet again been extended from January 24 to February 28.
Zones P-1 and J have seen a thin rate of participation with only 55.1 and 16.2 hectares of area being registered respectively, even though the DDA has been conducting camps to interact with landowners and apprise them of the policy.
“After we conducted the awareness camps, landowners in 50% of sectors expressed interest in land pooling, but a significant number is still waiting to see the progress,” the official said.
