The State government will soon introduce a new land disposal policy to bring transparency in the sale of public plots. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave an in-principle approval to the policy on Monday.
The new policy will provide a systematic framework to dispose of excess State land and transfer full rights to the holders. Senior officials said that the policy would be introduced in the State cabinet at the earliest.
The management of government land is now governed by the provisions of the Maharashtra Land Revenue (MLR) code, 1966, and the Disposal of Government Land Rules, 1971. Under the provisions of the MLR, government land owned by encroachment or trespassing is deemed unauthorised occupation. The person occupying the land after expiry or termination of the lease or tenancy period is declared as an unauthorised occupant.
While sections of the MLR code deal with the removal, regularisation and fixation of the value of the land and evictions, there is no policy governing disposal of excess government land. There is also no comprehensive policy for disposal of urban and rural land. A senior government official said, “We wanted a policy to ensure transparent disposal of land by way of auction or other means. This land can be bought for commercial use, such as setting up health and educational institutions.”
Creating land bank
A few laws accommodate provisions related to the disposal of land. The government can take over excess land by paying compensation, but disposal of such land has to be made by the Collector under the Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961, which fixes a ceiling limit. Senior officials said the government is taking stock of available land and maintaining an Encroachment Register in district offices. A recent audit of the Encroachment Registers found that 416 villages were preparing entries in them, laying grounds for the government to ascertain the amount of land at its disposal.
An official said, “The government earlier attempted to introduce a legislation to allow sale of public land. The bill, which is pending presidential approval, had led to a controversy over allegations that we [the State] wanted to convert the lease land into occupancy ownership.”