The much-awaited land pooling policy got the Centre’s approval in October last year. It aims to provide over 17 lakh houses of which around 5 lakh are for the Economically Weaker Sections. However, for stakeholders and homebuyers, uncertainty looms large as aggregation of land has become a hassle.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri and Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, who is also the Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, had launched an online portal for the land pooling policy in February this year.
The homebuyers, who have already made the payment in the hope of owning an address in Delhi, are complaining about the lack of clarity on when the project is expected to take off.
“Homebuyers have been paying since 2013 when the policy was first announced. First, the government took five years to approve the policy. Last year, they have made certain changes before clearing it. This has only added to our woes. People have completely lost trust in the policy now,” said Satish Kumar Aggarwal, secretary, Federation of Housing Societies and Developers in Delhi.
Sectoral planning
In the amended policy, the urban body had said that it will only act as a “facilitator and planner” while “development will be taken up by the developer entities or consortium”. This change was made only in December 2017, prior to which the policy had entailed transfer of land to the DDA.
The stakeholders also raised doubts over sector-wise division of land, which the urban body had made, and complained of land fragmentation.
Any delay in aggregation of land will only lead to further interruption in finally getting the houses promised, they said.
“The sector-wise planning is complicated and a lot of people are facing issues during registration of their land. The initial policy had zonal divisions, which were a broader segment and people bought land accordingly. Now, with the sector-wise division, a lot of people are finding their land in multiple sectors which defeats the purpose of accumulating a certain piece of land, which is the bare minimum,” said Mr. Aggarwal, who is also a Central government employee.
- The land pooling policy is divided into 5 zones and covers 95 villages
- 17 lakh houses promised under the project
- 5 lakh for Economically Weaker Sections
- Landowners with plots of any size can participate; minimum area required for development is 2 hectares
- 70% contiguous land is required for the development of a sector
- 1,857* registrations completed
- 1,000* hectares registered
- 30%* land accumulated in 3 sectors each
For Anandpur Dham society in the Ladpur area, around seven acres of land was bought in 2013, according to the plan at that time. However, with the change in plan, the land got divided into five sectors, he explained.
“The DDA portal does not even have information pertaining to how much of a particular sector has been accumulated. This only aggravates our woes as we cannot even approach others who might be having land in that sector to participate in the land pooling policy. The DDA should have first collected the land and then demarcated it. This would have made it faster and easier for all,” Mr. Aggarwal added.
Rising price
When the policy got approval last year, the floor area ratio (FAR) — the ratio of a building’s total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built — was reduced from 400 to 200.
“The authorities reduced the FAR citing issues related to provision of water and so on. This resulted in the price of land getting inflated. A flat which earlier cost between ₹50 and ₹60 lakh is now priced at ₹70 lakh-₹80 lakh just because of the delay,” said Vijayant Vikram, another member of the association.
Mr. Vikram also complained that the policy has not been advertised properly and farmers don’t know much about it.
A senior Home Ministry official, who is one among many who have booked flats under the scheme, said, “There is uncertainty in every sphere. We don’t even know when and where would we get a flat. I made the booking in 2013 by paying ₹17 lakh for a high-income-group flat. In the last five years, I have paid an additional ₹8 lakh just because the cost of the land went up. What is the reason for this delay? It is not even our fault and we have to pay without knowing when we will get possession of the flats.”
With August 4 as the last date for registration of the respective land parcels, stakeholders also raised concerns over what awaits them if the minimum 70% contiguous land, which is required, is not aggregated.
Responding to these queries, a senior DDA official said, “There is no sector yet where 70% of land has been accumulated. We will probably have to reopen the portal and keep doing it till the land is aggregated.
The DDA is currently in the process of demarcating how much land has been registered and in which sector. We will have to take a decision later.”
Help desks
“Over the next few days, we will also start help desks in SDM offices to provide assistance and guidance to people who want to register their land. We also intend to open two field offices with SDM-rank officers so that other land-related problems can be sorted out,” the senior official added.
The homebuyers, meanwhile, are anxiously waiting for the policy to be executed. They have invested a portion of their hard-earned money expecting to own a flat in the Capital.
“How long would people have to wait,” asked a group of Central government employees who had invested in properties hoping for the policy to take off.