Govt wants to repeal ULCRA, but not just yet
Having come under pressure from the Centre to repeal an archaic urban land ceiling act, the state government begun the process to repeal the act while also ensuring that it stays alive for a few months more.
By TNN |
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government wants to have the cake and eat it too. Having come under pressure from the Centre to repeal an archaic urban land ceiling act, the state government begun the process to repeal the act while also ensuring that it stays alive for a few months more.
CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, who holds the urban development portfolio, moved the resolution towards the end of the penultimate day’s proceedings in the legislative Assembly on Monday which will be taken up for debate only in the next session.
The resolution says the repeal of Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA) would lead to availability of land for housing in urban Maharashtra. The CM told the House that it was mandatory on the state government to repeal ULCRA under the guidelines of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
“The Centre has made it clear that the state will not get funds for infrastructure projects of its cities under JNNURM unless it scraps the act. We have also given an undertaking to the Centre saying that we will repeal the act,” Mr Deshmukh said.
Ramdas Kadam, the leader of the Opposition, raised objection to what he termed as the “hurried manner” in which the government had brought in the resolution on a major issue. Mr Kadam said legislators from major urban conglomerates of the state wanted to discuss the issue and demanded that a debate on the resolution be taken up at the next Assembly session.
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Mr Deshmukh said the government was open to a debate on ULCRA but reminded Mr Kadam that Shiv Sena was a part of the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre which had repealed the act in 1999. Presiding officer Chandrakant Chhajed ruled that the discussion on the resolution would be held during the monsoon session.“The government is not in a hurry. But I expect some consistency in the opposition’s stand since it was the NDA government which repealed the act,” Mr Deshmukh said. Eknath Khadse, BJP legislative party leader, however, asked the CM what stopped the DF government from repealing the act between 1999 and 2007.
Mr Kadam also claimed that the repeal of the act would hand over around 35,000 hectares of land on platter to rich developers. Mr Khadse sought to correct this figure to 35,000 acres and pointed out that a debate was essential to discuss aspects like actual land availability, quantum of land acquired so far, and what happens to the land locked under the act.
“Since the NDA repealed the act in 1999, the BJP cannot oppose it’s repeal in Maharashtra. In principle, we are for the act getting repeal but not without a debate,” he said.
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