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Articles: TP Features | Land Matters
- Mr. Sreenivas YL
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Those who support the sale of land put forth interesting arguments that government is not able to protect its land from the encroachers and therefore selling off the land is the only solution. Some would argue that what is wrong if government sells the land for revenue mobilization without imposing tax on people? Both the arguments are faulty because if the government cannot protect its own land it reflects the inefficiency and the failure of Revenue and Police administration. Government cannot sell the land for revenue mobilization because government has to protect the land to fulfill its constitutional and welfare responsibilities. For instance the government at present is selling the land in Cyber bad area. This is an area which is fast developing. Once the entire area becomes populous government has to discharge its constitutional responsibilities of providing schools, hospitals, electric sub-stations, social welfare hostels, and revenue and government offices. The Government would require a lot of land for all these activities. If the government disposes off the land how is it going to perform its responsibilities? Further government is merely a trusty of the land and not the owner and therefore it has no right to sell the land. Present government of Andhra Pradesh is not merely selling the land but also is contributing to the escalation of the land price- both are criminal.
One would argue that how can government regulate price of the land and of the apartments especially in a city which is rapidly growing? Government can adopt a variety of ways. It can announce housing schemes to various sections of people at no loss- no profit basis and construct houses at various places for different sections of people. It can also increase the FSI ratio to increase number of floors of the residential flats. It can thoroughly check the credentials of the real-estate brokers who are indulging in large scale acquisition of land. It can think of regulating, modifying Urban Land Ceiling Act. It can also think of spreading development to other cities in the state instead of concentrating all the industries and all the development at one place. If government applies mind it will find a variety of ways to regulate the price. But the question is does it have the will.
Under the circumstances the proposal of the central government to float an act to regulate prices of land is a welcome move. Andhra Pradesh government must at least now realize that it cannot sell the people’s land. It has a responsibility to regulate abnormal escalation of land price and it has a responsibility of protecting its people from rampant commercialization. While I write this article, HUDA has announced that it would auction 200 acres of land to mobilize resources.
- YL Srinivas
Associate Professor
Osmania University
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