Kejriwal government set for another tussle over circle rates

After a very public tussle on posting and transfers of senior bureacrats and anti-corruption branch, the Aam Aadmi Party and Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung seemed headed for another bout of slugfest, this time on the notification on the new circle rates in Delhi.

"The matter (of new circle rates for agricultural land in the national capital) was not placed before the lieutenant governor prior to the issuance of notification. The Raj Niwas has, therefore, called for the relevant file for examining the legal and constitutional aspects of the notification," a Raj Niwas release said on Wednesday.

The development comes after reports that the Delhi government proposed to go ahead with the notification of the new circle rate regime for agricultural land without Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung's nod.

"This has reference to reports in the media about a notification being issued by the Delhi government for enhancement of circle rates of agricultural land in Delhi," the Raj Niwas said.

On June 25, the Delhi government during the budget session proposed to increase the circle rates of agricultural land between Rs.1 crore and Rs.3.5 crore per acre. The current circle rate is Rs. 53 lakh per acre.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the Arvind Kejriwal government had decided to fulfil the long-pending demand of farmers to increase the circle rates, a benchmark for land acquisition.

A differential rate structure has been proposed in which there are two categories of agricultural land and that falling in villages where land pooling policy is applicable.