Rajasthan is one of the bright hot spots on the global & domestic tourism map. The state is known for its rich culture, heritage & numerous archaeological sites, that offer great attractions for the lakhs of tourists that visit the state from various parts of the globe.
Apart from being a tourism hub, the state is also leading the pack in implementing meticulous land reforms. After the titling law which was passed this month, the state government has also got the Rajasthan Land Pooling Schemes Bill passed in the state assembly.
The Act
This act will facilitate acquisition of small land parcels for bigger infrastructure projects. In many big ticket projects, fragmented land holdings- Often prove to be tricky in terms of acquisition thereby also affecting the projects. According to this law, if land owners decide to give up their properties, they would get a proportional share in the developed land, thereby stimulating easier acquisition.
This law has been primarily meant for the development of the infrastructure & investment promotion regions. The construction of new building, new structure or new installation that may be used for residential, commercial, public and semi-public, industrial, warehousing purposes shall not be deemed to be an operational construction within the purview of the Act.
Win-Win Situation for All
The biggest advantage of this law would be that it will speed up development works and simultaneously would create a fare advantage for those who own the properties, where the project would have to be set up. This will help in developing infrastructure as per the master plan. The land required for development will be shared by all the land owners in the area. People in the area will contribute land and in return will get developed land in the same proportion.
In order to ensure justified acquisition of land, the government will to allocate land close to where it has been taken from, as far as possible. According to the law, land owners will get up to 55 per cent of the developed land from the authority. Post development, it could be said that the value of their returned land will be much more than the original value of their entire land & hence it can be a win for all the stakeholders involved.
A win-win approach should ideally work towards nurturing cordial relationship between developers, industries, government and land holders. The cost of land acquisition would also come down as the entire money is not being paid up front but returned in the form of developed land. This will reduce the overall cost of the projects.
