The Piecemeal City: The Consequences Of Unplanned Growth In ...

One of the positive consequences of the recent focus on the dealings between companies owned by Robert Vadra and the real estate giant DLF is that the unregulated nature of the Haryana land market has become a topic of discussion. Mr Vadra?s companies? purchases of additional land and apartments were funded from the windfall gains that accrued after a 3.5 acre plot of land in Manesar received a conversion of land use notification from the Haryana government, which greatly increased its market value. It was evident immediately ? and even more so after the civil servant Ashok Khemka was transferred from his position as director general for consolidation of holdings in Haryana?s revenue department ? that the windfall gain Mr Vadra received following the change of land use notification was not unique. In a letter to the state?s chief secretary, Mr Khemka had said that ?thousands of acres of panchayat land, [which after being] illegally mutated in favour of owners, were subsequently partitioned into small parcels and sold?. This process benefited many, he added, including ?industrial houses and senior officers?. This newspaper reported last week that Mr Vadra, one of those beneficiaries, had bought his Manesar plot from a company whose owner had links to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It became increasingly evident that Haryana?s land market was undergoing a turbulent transition ?and the legal checks on the process were insufficient to prevent such land deals on a massive scale.

Exactly how massive is clear from an investigation by?The Hindu.?During the seven-and-a-half years that Mr Hooda has been chief minister of Haryana, the investigation found, licences for the development of 20,500 acres have been granted. This is an enormous tract of land. Of course, they need not be contiguous plots. But it is likely that the land is concentrated around highways and close to the National Capital Region; about half was in Gurgaon and Faridabad proper. These licences were allotted to 250 real estate firms. Some of these were previously unknown; others had no previous experience in real estate development. As?The Hindu?report points out, much of this came while developers used legal loopholes to shirk their responsibility to provide roads and low-cost dwellings, as well as to properly supervise the provision of water (to ensure that groundwater depletion was minimised).

The 20,500 acres released for development are, in total, about 83 square kilometres ? larger, say, than the 68 square kilometres of old Mumbai, the island city south of Mahim Creek. In effect, Mr Hooda built a city. That in itself is good; India needs more towns, more urban clusters. But the decision to create this new, disaggregated city piecemeal had costs. First, the legitimate owners of the land ? the people of the area, as represented by their panchayats ? were deprived of their land?s full value. Second, the urban agglomeration came up unplanned, without basic infrastructure and civic services. When the Maruti plant in Manesar exploded in violence recently, it was discovered that the industrial area didn?t even have a working fire service, let alone adequate dwelling units for workers. Finally, the new urban areas have little chance to develop a civic identity of their own, with minimal self-government and no public spaces. In allowing such land deals to swell the coffers of developers, the Haryana government has greatly harmed the state?s progress.

"You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want."

Source: http://gurgaonscoop.posterous.com/the-piecemeal-city-the-consequences-of-unplan

joe pa joe pa joe paterno dead marist south carolina primary results betty white ed reed