The Committee, in a report tabled before the state legislature, has raised several objections regarding violation of terms and conditions in lands leased to various private parties. (Representational image)
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the state legislature has asked the state government to evolve a policy for auctioning public lands. It has recommended that this policy be applied for allotment of lands owned by the government, state-run agencies such the Mhada, MMRDA, and the MSRDC, and urban local bodies.
The Committee, in a report tabled before the state legislature, has raised several objections regarding violation of terms and conditions in lands leased to various private parties. Observing that these violations had caused a huge loss of revenue to the state exchequer, the PAC has recommended using the auctioning route to allot lands in future.
Pointing out that there was a lack of uniformity in lease agreements, the PAC has also stated that a model lease agreement should be formulated by the government in the next couple of months. It has also objected to several instances where the execution of lease agreements had been pending for decades or the leases had not been renewed. It has also objected to cases where state-owned lands leased to local bodies had been allotted to institutions with the government’s prior consent. The PAC has also raised questions over the estimation method used to determine the ready reckoner rate of land.
