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Lieutenant governor VK Saxena has approved a new policy for inter-departmental allotment of land in Delhi to minimise the delays in the execution of projects in the Capital, officials from the LG secretariat said on Sunday.
An official said that there was no uniform policy to deal with the inter-departmental allotment of government land in Delhi which led to delays extending up to years in the execution of critical projects as files kept shuffling between various agencies.
“The new policy will come to force with immediate effect and will deal with allotment of land to departments, autonomous bodies and boards of the Delhi government. The policy deals with the rates at which land shall be allotted, depending upon the nature of the allotment,” the official said, asking not to be named.
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The LG secretariat has said that public utility allotments would be free of cost, provided the allotting agency had procured the land in question free of cost.
“In cases where the allotting agency got the land by way of acquisition, the rate will be based on no profit no loss basis as is the case with allotment of land from DDA (Delhi Development Authority). In cases, where the land is being allotted by the land-owning department to another for commercial purposes, zonal rates of DDA will be charged for allotment,” the statement added.
The new policy
As per the policy cleared by the LG, the land and building department will be the nodal agency for the implementation of the policy and the land-owning agency and allottee agency will mutually decide upon the nature of allotment, in terms of whether it will be on lease-hold or free-hold basis.
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“The policy also makes it clear that prior approval of LG shall be needed for cancellation of allotment of land. A committee under the chairmanship of the principal secretary (revenue) consisting of members from the land requisitioning body, land-owning body and the district magistrate concerned, will examine the request for allotment of land, norms and utility. The committee will have to submit its recommendations through the chief secretary before the LG for consideration and a final decision,” the official cited above added.
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A second LG house official said that a seven-member committee headed by the additional chief secretary (general administration) has formulated the policy.
“The panel held several rounds of deliberations on the issue and inputs were received from various stakeholder departments. Chief secretary had also held meetings on the land allotment policy with officers of the urban development, industries, finance, law, and education departments along with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi,” the official said, adding that the policy has provisions to keep a record of transferred and allotment of land in the custody of the administrative department concerned to ensure proper management.
Several infrastructure projects in Delhi in recent years have witnessed delays due to problems faced in land acquisition and transfer.
For example, the construction on the Mukarba Chowk project began in June 2022 but ran into land transfer obstacles — the latest one being when PWD in September 2022 requested a permanent transfer of land for the construction of an approach road up to the underpass from the I&FC department and started construction in anticipation of the land transfer.
However, the IF&C department did not respond to the request and filed a police complaint over the construction. The subsequent tussle between the two departments over the following months stalled the work. Eventually, after a delay of nearly 11 months, Saxena on July 7 approved the transfer of a 1.2-acre pocket of land from the I&FC department to PWD and flagged the lack of communication between the two departments.
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