Govt To Relax Urban Land Ceiling Norms

The Urban Land Ceiling Act will be significantly modified shortly, said urban development and employment minister Ram Jethmalani yesterday. He also called for greater private sector participation to help fulfill the governments promise of providing two million houses every year.

Jethmalani has earlier gone on record to say that he would take necessary steps to ensure that the Urban Land Ceiling Act is repealed. However, if the repeal does not come through, the Act would be retained with significant modifications to make it people-friendly.

Though the United Front government had decided to repeal the Act, approvals were required from at least two state governments for the decision to become a legislation. So far, only Haryana has given its approval, but Maharashtra and Karnataka are reportedly likely to follow suit.

 

We have been told by the experts that the investment requirement for urban infrastructure for the period 1996 to 2001 would be in the range of Rs 80,000 crore. I wonder, if, in a resource scarce economy, such funds would be available without the involvement of the private sector, said Jethmalani, addressing the inaugural session of a workshop on community approach to integrated basic services for the urban poor.

A clear-cut guideline facilitating private sector participation in the area will be formulated, said the minister at the workshop, jointly organised by the urban affairs ministry and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (UNCHS).

Jethmalani spoke of the importance of local bodies in generating their own resources to fund urban infrastructure projects.

In this regard, he said that municipal corporations could issue municipal bonds and that the corporations should ensure both public and private participation to mobilise resources.

Speaking at the workshop, Kiran Aggarwal, secretary, ministry of urban affairs and employment, announced the launch of pilot project in association with UNCHS in three towns Rajkot, Lucknow and Vishakhapatnam to promote an integrated, participatory and gender sensitive approach to the provision and management of urban basic services.

She said that 18 more cities would be included in the list for the pilot project in the second phase.

The third phase would cover all the cities of the country.