Economy

KEY POINTS

• Land is a crucial and often constraining input for production, not only in agriculture but also in secondary and tertiary sectors.
• Meanwhile, a large proportion of government land lies unused in India.

Problem of Unused land

• High land value - A large part of the unused land is located in prime areas of major cities and it is of high-value and importance.
• Land hoarding by government agencies has created artificial scarcity and one of the main reasons for skyrocketing urban real estate prices.
• Thus, resulted in housing unaffordable for most of the middle and lower-income people.
• Competitiveness - High land prices also reduce competitiveness by increasing the cost of industrial and development projects.
• Corruption - The allocation of unused land is rife with corruption.
• For instance, abound of public land being resold to private entities in dubious deals.
• Economic growth – The problem of wastage degrades employment and push masses in to the circle of poverty.

Reasons

• Urban planning - Most Indian cities defy the Floor Space Index (FSI) – the basic tenet of urban planning, due to the large areas of unused or underutilised government land with an irresponsibly low FSI.
• (FSI – a measure to determine land use pattern, which is the total floor area built per square metre of land)
• Conversely, the FSI in Shanghai is four times of that of Delhi and Mumbai.
• Lack of Information - The information provided by the Government Land Information System (GLIS) is both incomplete and patchy.
• They exclude several departments of the centre, and more importantly, don’t take into account excess land holding by the states.

Solutions

• The need of the hour is a comprehensive inventory of land resources and usage patterns for all government branches.
• It should include information on the location of each property, its dimensions, the legal title, current and planned use, and any applicable land use restrictions.
• Land intended for future use can be rented out till such time it is needed, through a transparent auctioning process.
• This will not only buoy the public exchequer but prevent plots of land lying waste for years.
• To maintain efficiency amidst increasing population and economic growth, the Floor space index (FSI) should be increased.

Plz review and give your suggestions

Land is a finite resource, is important component of life support system. For India, the seventh largest country in the world, land resource management is becoming very important. India has over 17% of world’s population living on 2.4% of the world’s geographical area. Government and it agencies possess land, and most of the land remains under-utilised or used inefficiently.

Reasons:

1. Land records maintained by the govt. are very old and are not updated frequently.

2. Govt. is constrained by its objective to develop social sector and hence focus on land utilisation is very minute.

3. Corruption remains persistent in state agencies which deal with land, giving place to land scams.

4. Lack of financial and technical resources with govt. resulted in unscientific and irrational land use.

Suggestions:

1. Land records must be computerised, mapped and updated immediately, such that with numbers at hand, efficient planning can be done for surplus land.

2. Land utlisation zoning (like, SEZs, NMIZs, ESZs, agricultural, coastal etc) must be done and made to function effectively.

3. There is a need for land regulatory authority to check proper and efficient use of land.

4. Proper scientific measurement techniques like Floor space index (FSI) need to be adopted for optimal use of floor space.

5. The land records of govt. must be made available for citizens for transparent land use.

6. Local planning must be adopted such that land available can be utilised for local development.

7. Large land mass are to be developed into long term service areas like water treatment, waste treatment, etc. to make land utilised for longer periods.

8. The problems like corruption, redtapism, transparency must be addressed.

There is a need for optimal utilisation of land resources. The country can no longer afford to neglect land, the most important natural resource, so as to ensure sustainability and avoid adverse land use conflicts.  Also, there is a need for preservation of the country’s natural, cultural and historic heritage areas. In every case, there is a need for optimal utilisation of land resources.