Little time left for govt to attach surplus land

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government may go on a land acquisition spree. In the next four months, the state government is likely to go all out to implement the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA) of 1976. As ULCRA has got an extension till the budget session in March-April 2007, the government plans to acquire as much land as possible before the Act is abolished.

According to the moderate estimates of urban development officials, the government will soon be lording over around 10,000 acres of land in prime urban centres in the state, including Mumbai. Mumbai alone is expected to fetch around 1,500 acres in this official land haul, officials said. Even if the Act goes, the government will be the sole owner of the land it has already acquired.

“We will acquire as much surplus land as possible in all urban conglomerates till the Act is in force. Land acquisition will be particularly more in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and Thane,” a senior urban development official said.

The state government now wants to exploit this socialist era law to the hilt. Under the Act, an individual or a trust cannot own urban land in excess of 10 acres and the government can acquire surplus land to make housing stock available for weaker sections of the society.

However, the Act has never been implemented in letter and spirit by the various governments so far. Land acquisition has been extremely tardy from the beginning. “Between 1976 and 2004, the state government acquired around 215 acres in Mumbai when more than 10,000 acres of urban land was eligible for acquisition,” an official said.

Under the Act, the government can grant exemption to surplus land owners provided they carry out schemes for housing the urban poor. In Mumbai, though exemption was granted for around 1,850 acres of surplus land, no housing schemes came up on 1,271 acres. And of this 1,271 acres eligible for acquisition, the government has acquired only 261 acres until August 2006, sources said.

The state has only one noteworthy example of ULCRA being implemented for the purpose it is meant for. Around 70 acres acquired under the Act in Malad were given to Nagari Nivara Parishad Trust for constructing 6,000 tenements for the weaker sections. MHADA constructed these tenements which, ironically, are the only instance of the proper implementation of ULCRA in Mumbai.

The acquisition process had peaked during Vilasrao Deshmukh’s second term as chief minister when the Mumbai makeover plans topped his agenda, and the Centre asked the state to repeal the Act if it wanted central assistance.

“From December 2004 to November 2006, we have acquired around 5,200 acres of surplus land across the state, including 1,100 acres in Mumbai alone. In other major urban centres such as Nagpur, Pune and Thane, the government acquired 900 acres, 670 acres and 880 acres, respectively. The government has also recovered around Rs 45 crore from the owners of the surplus land as penalty,” an official said.

In August 2006 when the Bombay High Court was hearing a PIL, the government assured the court that it would acquire another 1,000 acres of surplus land in Mumbai by February 2007. “This process is under way now.

We have served notices on owners of around 500 acres so far,” an official said. The PIL comes up for hearing again on February 14. “At this rate, we will complete the process of acquiring the remaining surplus land by February 14,” he said.