After the Indian independence, land was concentrated in the hands of a few people. A vast majority of the people in both the urban and rural areas were landless laborers with small and marginal incomes. Thus, the Land Reforms Act was enacted to ensure equitable distribution of land among the landless people. However, when evaluating the present situation, this Act has not served its main purpose. People with landed properties have learnt to circumvent the various clauses of this Act and occupy properties using devious methods. An Apartment in Kochi is not just a single unit. It is part of a larger complex. Some of the apartment developers have also learnt to circumvent the loopholes in the law to own and manage large swathes of properties.
From the above, the following conclusions emerge:
1.The Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act is an excellent piece of social legislation but unfortunately, it is not being implemented correctly. Its implementation is mostly taking place by defeating its basic social objective for ulterior motives through exploiting the loopholes in the act. This must stop.
2.This can be stopped and the social objectives can be achieved only by selling the housing stock created by the government’s housing and financing bodies.
3.The original owners should be paid the market price for their land even if it is acquired under the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act to avoid litigations and stalling of such good work. It is affordable to pay them the market price.
4.In addition, the contractors should be given enough incentives by giving 15 to 20 percent profits on their total expenditure if they accept social and public audit as laid down by the Government Resolution.
5.The cost of construction and prices of basic building raw materials almost double every 4-5 years in India. Therefore, the crux of the whole matter is that these schemes must be executed with at a faster pace; with high quality building construction materials and only then the prices will be contained at a particular level.
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