Eldeco MD Pankaj Bajaj Claims Many R & R Provisions as Impractical

The 2013 Land Acquisition Amendment (Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill) came out as a major disappointment for real estate developers. It has declared housing as an annuity, which would then accure apart from one-time cash payments to people whose land has been acquired.

Pankaj Bajaj Eldeco criticizes the new R and R provisions:

“On the parts of the land which are 80% acquired by mutual consent, what has been done is very disappointing is that R & R are very prohibitive, E.g. It says that 20% of the developed land has to be given back to the landowner when he has willingly sold the land at market price. We have not put a gun to his head to sell the land to us. We have to give him 20% of the share of any open market transactions that we might do subsequently in the next ten years. 20% of that belongs to the original landowner, 25% share in the project. There is mandatory employment which has to be given to his family. There is development to be done in his village. It’s ridiculous.” It’s also disgruntling for the builders that affordable housing is not kept under the ambet of public purpose and the bill seems to be basically focusing on the welfare and benefits of the farmers alone; which cannot be considered profitable for the entire country, because it focuses on just one segment of society.

R & R provisions have made it very laborious and really expensive as well to acquire land for open-market transactions. With rapid urbanisation taking place in the country, it’s the prominent duty of the government to provide affordable homes to its working class in urban areas. Hence, R & R provisions should be removed from open market public transactions. Also, the bill has banned, land acquisition of multi-crop land which is highly impractical, considering the entire Gangetic plains have multi-crop land and also the major cities of the country fall in this region.

It’s quite necessary for the government to judge their bills and acts and their effects on all segments of the country before its mass implementation.