Serious questions are being raised over the misuse of ‘Gifted land’ by Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) for parking and public toilet purposes and street vendors for business.
The landowners, who have donated their valuable land piece to the Municipal Corporation for the sole purpose of road widening, have flayed the practice.
They also alleged that police extort a hefty sum every month from street vendors for allowing them to use such vacant land.
Experts believe that the purpose of the land acquired from the land owners through ‘gift deed’ will not be fulfilled until a strong decision is taken at the government level.
“This is absolutely wrong on the part of Ranchi Municipal Corporation as the land acquired by the RMC for the sole purpose of road widening is being used for other purposes. This is also illegal in the eyes of law,” said architect at the RMC, Arun Kumar. The land obtained from the land owners are not used properly as only those land owners are required to gift a part of their land, who apply for construction over their land after getting the maps passed by the RMC, he added.
“While the land on which construction has not been done, need not require donating their land in the form of ‘gift deed’ creating a hurdle in road widening resulting into the misuse of the ‘gift deed’ land by the RMC or the street vendors,” said the architect. If the RMC really wants to use the ‘gifted lands,’ it has to be surrendered by the land owners uniformly at a stretch without any break, he added.
The architect also said that the civic body’s inaction sparing the Government buildings under the drive have also raised heckles.
‘Gifted land’ is a portion of land which the owner donates to the Government. As per the mandatory provision, every landholder has to donate a small portion of the front side of his/her land to the municipal authority for the sole purpose of road widening or construction of drains.
The land holder has to execute a ‘deed of gift’ at the time of map sanction, promising therein that he will leave a particular portion, which varies depending on the locality of his/her land vacant.
“A person, according to the law, has to leave the land for his convenience only having the only right over the land, but you cannot make any construction on it” said a senior lawyer requesting anonymity.
“The State Government or the RMC cannot use it for any other purpose than for road widening and must pay compensation to the land owner, if it is acquired by them,” he added. The lawyer said that it is the same land which is left vacant both in front or on its back when the map of any building is passed by the RMC.
“That land belongs only to the land owner, having sole right over it,” said the lawyer.