DDA's landpooling policy in doldrums

DDA has not been able to make any headway in implementing its crucial Land Pooling Policy, as it still awaits the notification by Delhi government declaring several villages as development areas or urban villages.
The Union Urban Development Ministry had on May 26 last approved the regulations for operationalisation of the policy with five amendments following which the then Vice-Chairman of DDA Balvinder Kumar had said, "The ball is in Delhi government's court".
"The ball is pretty much still in Delhi government's court as there has been no further progress on this front from their (government) side. The policy seems to be stuck right now," a senior DDA official told PTI.

The actual implementation of the policy hinges on the city government's decision on declaring 95 villages as development areas and 89 of them as urban villages. The housing authority had earlier requested to it to issue a notification in this regard.
After Centre's approval of the regulations, Kumar had said, "Both these requests are pending with the government in advanced stages. We hope it will soon issue the notification on it."
Another top DDA official said, "We have already sent reminders to Delhi government but received no response from them. But, we are working on resolving the issue and getting that policy implemented."

Land Pooling Policy seeks to make landowners partners in the development and is divided into two categories of pooling -- Category I for land 20 ha and above and Category II for 2 ha to less than 20 ha. In the first category, the developer entity will have 60 per cent share, while DDA will retain 40 per cent. In the second category, DDA will retain 52 per cent while rest will go to developer.

The policy is applicable in the proposed "urbanisable" areas of the urban extensions for which zonal plans have been approved. The 'urban village' status to 89 villages will nullify the provisions of Delhi Reforms Act governing them.

The policy's implementation assumes significance as the DDA's Master Plan Delhi (MPD) 2021 proposes construction of 25 lakh housing units by 2021 for which 10,000 hectares of land will be required. As per DDA estimates, 2.5 lakh houses, including 50,000 EWS units, will require 1,000 hectare of land.
Relief to small farmers, self-penalty on DDA for delays, and flexibility allowed to farmers to trade their land or tie up with developers for land pooling are some of the important features of the Land Pooling Policy.