Lords of the land: Breaking free in realty
It took just 10 minutes for Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh to bring down the curtain on Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act.
By Abhiram Ghadyal Patil, TNN |
NAGPUR: On Thursday morning, a determined Deshmukh led his government in pushing through the repeal of Ulcra in the legislative Assembly. The Assembly passed a resolution to this effect by voice vote. However, a crucial technical provision still protects the Act from being written off the statute book — the resolution has to be passed by the Legislative Council, too.
The government will have to get this done during the winter session itself, which is on the last mile, to complete the formalities.
Even as a belligerent Shiv Sena, which has been in the vanguard of a fierce and emotive opposition to the Act being scrapped, once again raised the bogey of interests of Marathi manoos being sacrificed, Mr Deshmukh wound up his short reply to a debate on the issue.
Amidst a din orchestrated by the Sena in the well of the House, the Congress-NCP government got the resolution passed and urban Maharashtra freed of the land-licence raj. Now, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh remain the only states to take the Ulcra off their back.
Mr Deshmukh reminded the Sena that it was an NDA constituent when the Centre phased out Ulcra. “It was Manohar Joshi who, as chief minister of Maharashtra, first prepared a note for repeal of Ulcra,” Mr Deshmukh told the restive Sena members.
The chief minister was candid enough to admit that the Act had failed to achieve its objectives in 31 years. “The Act has not helped farmers, the urban poor and the middle class as expected.
In fact, the preamble to a bill that did away with Ulcra in 1998 at the Centre mentions that the Act has failed to realise its lofty objectives,” Mr Deshmukh said. The litigations involving owners of surplus land, he added, were expected to be rendered null and void since the Act was being scrapped.
According to the CM, 30,745.33 hectares of land (76,863 acres) in nine cities were pending for acquisition under the Ulcra. “The government has failed to acquire this land under Section 6 of the Act,” Mr Deshmukh admitted.
Socialist leader and former legislator PB Samant, who has been spearheading a campaign against scrapping the Ulcra, said the government would not find it easy to actually make the Act null and void. “It’s not as easy as it seems. We have already challenged the 1999 decision by the Vajpayee government to repeal the Act. We will fight this decision on all possible fronts,” Mr Samant told ET.
The government will have to get this done during the winter session itself, which is on the last mile, to complete the formalities.
Even as a belligerent Shiv Sena, which has been in the vanguard of a fierce and emotive opposition to the Act being scrapped, once again raised the bogey of interests of Marathi manoos being sacrificed, Mr Deshmukh wound up his short reply to a debate on the issue.
Amidst a din orchestrated by the Sena in the well of the House, the Congress-NCP government got the resolution passed and urban Maharashtra freed of the land-licence raj. Now, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh remain the only states to take the Ulcra off their back.
Mr Deshmukh reminded the Sena that it was an NDA constituent when the Centre phased out Ulcra. “It was Manohar Joshi who, as chief minister of Maharashtra, first prepared a note for repeal of Ulcra,” Mr Deshmukh told the restive Sena members.
The chief minister was candid enough to admit that the Act had failed to achieve its objectives in 31 years. “The Act has not helped farmers, the urban poor and the middle class as expected.
ADVERTISEMENT
In fact, the preamble to a bill that did away with Ulcra in 1998 at the Centre mentions that the Act has failed to realise its lofty objectives,” Mr Deshmukh said. The litigations involving owners of surplus land, he added, were expected to be rendered null and void since the Act was being scrapped.
According to the CM, 30,745.33 hectares of land (76,863 acres) in nine cities were pending for acquisition under the Ulcra. “The government has failed to acquire this land under Section 6 of the Act,” Mr Deshmukh admitted.
Socialist leader and former legislator PB Samant, who has been spearheading a campaign against scrapping the Ulcra, said the government would not find it easy to actually make the Act null and void. “It’s not as easy as it seems. We have already challenged the 1999 decision by the Vajpayee government to repeal the Act. We will fight this decision on all possible fronts,” Mr Samant told ET.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
