Managing Land in the Indian Context

Jit Kumar Gupta; [email protected]

·       Land occupies merely 29% of area of earth surface( Blue Planet), whereas water share is placed at 71%

·       India falls within the category of highest land stressed country, with share of only 2.4 % global land for supporting 16.7% global population.

·       Land supports entire eco-system of human living and working.

·       Land offers the platform on which all human activities are performed.

·       Land remains the most valuable asset owned by human beings

·       Economists consider land one of three basic/critical resources including land, labour and capital

·        Economist use the term Land not only as the surface of the soil but also all natural resources gifted by nature.

·       Land has been definer of human history, growth and development

·       Land is the most valuable free gift nature has ever made to mankind.

·       Land remains the basic instrument of productivity and governance in the society.

·       Land is the major determinant of economy, employment, transportation, quality of life, basis of life etc

·       Supply of land remains inelastic as quantum of land remains limited and constant and undergoes no change. Human intervention to increase/decrease has no impact on it except in small quantity – reclamation of sea etc.

·       Land is characterised by its permanency and in-destruction unlike other elements on earth.

·        Land remains both as primary and passive factor of production

·       Land remains static/ immovable because it has limitation of being transported from one place to another

·       Difference of land lies in its fertility which varies from place to place.

·        Land is characterised by attributes of slope angle, rainfall, soil texture, water capacity, biomass, vegetation etc

·       Land needs to be valued in all human endeavours of planning, growth and development.

·       Trading land as a commodity needs total restriction.

·       Land needs to be optimised in all uses, both agricultural and non- agricultural

·       Conversion of land for urbanisation must be minimised.

·       For minimising conversion of land, all planning tools like Master Plans, Development Plans, Zonal /Zoning Plans, Layout Plans must be evolved, devolved, developed, prepared and implemented with the prime focus on conserving, preserving and optimising land.

·       For optimising land all planning tools must be revisited, analysed, revised and re-defined

·       Cities must be made more compact to minimise the urbanisation of land. Compact city planning should be based on the principles of mixed land use, higher density& higher floor area ratio, transit oriented development, pedestrianisation etc

·       For rationalising land resource, all peri-urban growth and development must be controlled, regulated and eliminated.

·       Haphazard/unplanned growth ,known to be greatest polluter of land, needs to be controlled/regulated and stopped.

·       Nations/States must come out a well-defined land use policy for rationalising the use of land and minimising abuse of the resource. Policy must cover all lands falling in both urban/Rural areas and its use/preservation/conservation.

·       Regional Planning framework for all states must be immediately put in place for rationalising urban/rural land.

·       For preserving , land must be declared a national resource.

·       State Town Planning / Local Government Departments should set up a R&D Cell to focus on strategies to optimise the urban land use.

·        For optimising the urban land, all Planning norms and standards for amenities/facilities/infrastructure must be revisited and redefined with focus on conserving land by using it 24x7x365

·       All Building Bye-laws/zoning regulations must be redefined to optimise the use of land.

·       State Land Use Board and all other stakeholders involved with land must be made to co-operate, collaborate and mandated to evolve jointly a comprehensive land use strategy for the state.

·       Proportion of land, which must be dedicated for different uses within the state/country /city, for Urbanisation, Agriculture, Afforestation, Traffic & transportation, Housing, Infrastructure etc must be clearly defined and followed in all development activities.

·       Department of Revenue to be made nodal agency mandated to look at the entire context of land in terms of its planning, development and management. Revenue record of the entire land resource should be digitised/computerised and put it in public domain to bring transparency in land management.

·       The entire agricultural land must be consolidated and linked with a GPS System for its rational management.

·       Land speculations must be controlled and should be severely penalised to avoid misuse/abuse of land resource.

·       All vacant land falling in the urban areas must be taxed to bring them under development.

·       Inventory of all urban/ rural land under the ownership of state/para-statal agencies must be prepared to make its optimum use and to eliminate any possibility of encroachment.

·       Dedicated schemes for optimum utilisation of available government lands must be prepared on the pattern of OUVGL scheme launched by the Punjab Government, considering the needs of local area development/provisions of the master/ development plan.

·       Land falling in the abadi deh area must be properly documented with ownership record prepared. State should grant ownership rights to the persons having right to such land. This would help in proper planning of rural habitats and provision of basic services.

·       Land/land use mapping must be made integral part of planning, development and management of both urban/rural land . State land resource must be mapped in entirety in terms of area, ownership, shape, size, quality of land, structures/elements existing on land, accessibility, services, orientation, irrigation facilities, status, valuation, floodability, levels, contours etc

·       Permission to grant change of landuse from agriculture to non- agricultural use should be done as an exception rather than as a rule and that too under a detailed and well defined policy framework.

·       Policy of permitting change of landuse for large institutions in the rural hinterland must be immediately stopped to eliminate pollution of nearby agricultural land and saving state from accidents/ traffic and transportation blues besides minimising peripheral growth and development.

·       Industrial growth along roads outside defined industrial zones must be stopped with no incentives/concessions provided. 

·       Land has emerged one of the most controversial element among human beings/society/ nations leading to numerous problems. Delay in most of the infrastructure projects , particularly widening of roads/ creating flyovers have their genesis in the land related issues.

·       Most of the conflict/crimes have their genesis in ownership and pricing of land.

·       For minimising litigations and to reduce the number of pendency of cases, dedicated courts for solving land disputes should be provided.

·       Best practices prevailing globally needs to be studied and put in place in India to effectively manage the land resource.

·       Land laws must be consolidated  for creating an effective legal framework for land management.

·       Land being a state subject , needs to be made part of central list so as to have a central act for the entire country.

·       Rationalising Traffic and Transportation, both inter-city and intra-city, has its genesis in the landuse planning

·       Town planning as a profession has its roots in land; its sub-division, determining use of land and the extent to which construction can be made over it.

·       Land has enormous capacity to generate resource for the urban development process/rationalising urbanisation.

·       Land related instruments like Transfer of Development Rights, Accommodation Reservation, Tradable FAR, Saleable FAR, Additional FAR, Advertisement Rights, Land pooling and land redistribution, External Development Charges, Internal Development Charges, Property Taxes, User Charges etc have been made used effectively and efficiently to rationalise use of land and to raise fiscal resources.

·       Defining  Land use needs careful and detailed study/analysis of available land. As per National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicines, determinants of land use classification should be based on ; i. Land --as a functional space devoted to various uses—urban/rural/residential/commercial/industrial/institutional etc

ii. Land-- as a setting for different activities- living/working/recreating/ commuting etc

iii. Land-- as a part of environmental system- wetland/forest/flood plains/wildlife habitat

iv. Land --as real estate --exchange commodity to be bought, developed and sold

v Land --as a publically planned services and regulated space—landuse , density, zoning, infrastructure

vi. Land--as a visual feature for orientation and symbolism--- corridor/nodes/neighbourhood

·       Land derives its value in urban parlance based on the use to which it can be put, its shape, size, freedom from physical encumbrances, location, surroundings, city  and the extent to which buildings can be constructed on it.

·       Master plan has its genesis in looking at the existing land use and suggesting an agenda for its future use in terms of proposed land use plan, spanning generally a time period of 20 years.