Jan Lokpal Bill Crusader Shanti Bhushan falls victim to the National Sport of India---Land Speculation
By Robby Sharma..30-04-2011-sharmarobby@hotmail.com
1. Mr Shanti Bhushan was recently accused of getting two Farm House Plots from U.P. Government in NOIDA at throw away prices.
2. While there may be no illegality in the matter yet the fact remains that he has declared Assets of more than hundred Crores of Rupees and these include many Plots, Flats & House properties.
3. Please refer to my Post on sharmarobby.wordpress.com of 27-07-2006, in which I had mentioned about the Ill effects of hoarding of Land and how Speculation In Land has become the National Sport of India. I had written:-
4. Speculation in land has become the national Sport of India & Indians, every body including Governments, State Instrumentalities, politicians, Traders, Government officers & officials, Judges & other rich & powerful persons are engaged in buying, hoarding & selling at profit, land all over the country.
5. Now the point is that why such a situation has arisen that the poor people have to encroach upon these lands & live in worst conditions than even Beasts in small hovels. Talking about Kanpur when Jawaharlal Nehru visited Kanpur, soon after independence, in the early Fifties, he used these very words when he visited a few hataas on G.T.road in Kanpur. Since then ten five year plans have gone by & the nett result is that now there are fifty times more such Beast like creatures(poor slum dwellers), living in smaller hovels. The situation is the same in all the cities of the Country.
6. lakhs of poor are being evicted from their skimpy shelters (over Government Lands, from the roads, from the railway lines, from the drains, from the footpath land, from above the sewer nalas, from the patris besides the canals, from Sewerage carrying cement pipes stored near the roads) by these lion hearted men of the Government departments with police help.
7. I had noted the following :-
8. Government Instrumentalities are hoarding the acquired lands (acquired on a large scale from hapless farmers even at as low a price as a few nai paise per square meters & the same land after hoarding is being sold at thousands of rupees per square meters) like Sukkhi lala of Mother India (who used to hoard grain & ask for the honor of needy women in return for it)& releasing land in small quantities of schemes of a few acres each thus creating a artificial shortage of land & jacking up the prices every now & then, the release price bears no resemblance to the cost of acquisition & the increase in rates are wholly unjustified. While all the other necessities of life including income of honest Countrymen have seen a jump of about 30 to 50 times over the last fifty years, the price of Land has gone up by about two thousand times, taking it beyond the means of the majority.
9. The high cost of the basics of life is turning everyone in to thief those in the Government who are not on seats of power & thus denied extra income by way of bribes are being forced to resort to other questionable means to supplement their incomes. The Army is being charged of selling off petrol during transportation & instead carrying water in its tankers & dumping in the fuel dump(case reported from Jammu recently) then there was the News of selling off of subsidized Liquor of Army Canteens in to the open market by Army Generals. Such a situation is deplorable but how do you expect a well read, sophisticated Army Officer to to buy a House for himself which in keeping with his status can cost upwards of Rs one Crore in a good-sized City.(actually in delhi mumbai & metros it can cost upwards of five crores) Are you paying that kind of a Salary to him ( More recently there has come to light a ghotala by the Army generals & other officers in Dal/Rations while yet another general is accused of Ghotala in purchase of meat ..) Therefore by allowing for large-scale speculation in land the Government is destroying the Institution of the Army as well.
10. I had made the following Suggestions:-
i. Ceiling Act which was repealed in 1999 has to
be re-enacted(after removing the
discrepancies under the earlier law) if the
Country is to be saved. There should be
a ceiling of 300 to 500 sq meters per family in
the case of plots & 3500 to 4000 Sq feet
in case of Flats & this ceiling should be the
maximum that a family should be allowed
to buy in the entire country & should apply to
all towns above100000 (one lakh) Population.
ii. Owners of all vacant plots in excess of this
limit should be allowed one years time to
sell them after which they should be acquired
at maximum of one twentieth of the declared
price of acquisition by them.
iii. Ban Sale of Agricultural land in the cities &
beyond 10 kilometers of their present boundaries to those whose families did not hold agricultural lands at the time of Agrarian reform Acts. This ban not to apply to qualified builders
iv. Give exemption to qualified builders
including exemption from stamp duty with the
restriction that they will have to complete
their Schemes within 5 years, by which time
all the land/flats built by them as per the
layout plan should be sold & registered
in favor of purchasers.
v. Allow a minimum of 2.00 as F.A.R & in case
of lesser ground coverage an
F.A.R of up to 3.50.Relax Master Plan
Density provisions to more realistic levels.
vi. While providing for a maximum F.A.R,
provide for a minimum F.A.R as well so
that only the needy buy the scarce land. Thus a minimum F.A.R of at least 1.5 should be enforced. Fix property tax rates on this basis. Start charging penal rates of property tax on properties which do not consume this minimum F.A.R within two years of purchase. Provide for compulsory Acquisition of all un-built-upon plots at a maximum of 50 % of the cost of its acquisition by the purchaser if they do not consume the minimum F.A.R. within five years of purchase.
vii. The minimum permissible F.A.R to be compulsorily occupied ,Thus an unoccupied dwelling unit to attract penal rate of property tax as compared to an occupied one.
viii. Immediately by a Central Act/ Constitutional Amendment , the Rent Control Acts in all the States should be revoked or amended to take out all portions above 200 square meters from its application . As it is the political parties/ Politicians are the only beneficiaries of these Rent Acts, they are occupying acres & acres of prime properties in the Cities & paying a negligible sum as rent while Lakhs of owners of these properties have died of starvation. The tenants of portions up to 200 sq meters should (subject to owners willingness) be given an option by way of right to buy their portions at 50% of the market rates, failing which they would have to vacate.
ix. Bring down the Stamp duty to maximum of 2
%.
x. Ensure for provision of minimum 50 square
meter of Housing land to all slum dwellers
free of cost or at rates affordable to them
based on the average earnings of Indians
after excluding the earnings of the higher
earning ten % of the population.
xi. Amend the Indian Registration Act & Indian
Stamp Act & exclude lease/rent deeds up to ten years from imposition of the Stamp duty, this will give sense of security both to the owners & tenants, who will be able to enter in to a contract (presently eleven month contracts are being made to avoid stamp duty which are useless as the time period is impractical) &this will prevent lakhs of litigations.
Xii. Acquire all surplus lands lying idle with
Government departments, Mills & shift the
Government Officers to modest
accommodations & reclaim this land &
redistribute it to the poor free of cost.
xiii. Give these lands on lease, free of cost to Educational Institutes who under take
to impart quality Professional Education at
affordable rates to the Citizens.
xiv. In Cantonments, allot surplus lands to Professional Institutes on lease, free of
cost & reserve 100 % of the seats in these colleges for Children of army men.
xv. Declare all Agricultural lands within 5-20 kilometers of cities (depending on their population) as freely convertible to Residential Commercial uses. In addition to this all Agricultural lands on both sides of major roads within say two kilometers to five kilometers(depending on the width of the Major road/highway)should also be declared as freely convertible& Reasonable Restrictions may be put which are easily affordable Otherwise what will additionally happen is what has already happened i.e. the majority have turned in to thieves by breaking the unaffordable & unreasonable restrictions put on User of Land.
xvi. In keeping with the Socialistic Character of
Indian Constitution, it is imperative that the
following steps are taken at once & needed Law
passed:-
1. Shift the President of India to a more modest accommodation & either sell the real Estate of Rashtrapati Bhavan & use the money to provide Houses to the needy in Delhi or to settle the needy right on its site.
2. Restrict the Ministers of the Union & the States to Bungalows of maximum 2000 Square meters.
3. Restrict the Prime Minister & Chief Ministers of the States to Bungalows of maximum 4000 Square meters.
4. Restrict the Members of Parliament & the Members of Legislative Assemblies to Bungalows of maximum 1000 square meters Or Multistory Flats of Maximum 500 Square meters floor area.
5. Restrict the I.A.S Officers & I.P.S officers to Bungalows of maximum 500 square meters Or Multistory Flats of Maximum 400 Square meters floor area.
6. Restrict the other Central & State Government Officers to Bungalows of maximum 350 square meters Or Multistory Flats of Maximum 300 Square meters floor area.
7. Use the saved lands for benefit of the poor.
11. I hope that Sri Anna Hazare will work
towards this end and will further prevail upon his colleague Sri Shanti Bhushan to dispose off all Landed properties owned by him in keeping with the Socialist character of the Constitution so that none in India is deprived from a Roof over his head.
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