The ministry has proposed a similar obligatory participation of landowners once a sector is notified as eligible for “land pooling”. (ANI photo)NEW DELHI: The housing and urban affairs ministry has proposed major amendments in the Delhi Development Act to give sweeping powers to the central government to direct the DDA or a municipal body to notify any area they identify for mandatory “urban regeneration”. Once such an area or “block” is notified, it will be obligatory for all property owners to participate in the redevelopment plan. The proposed changes may cause a stir since the urban regeneration scheme has been given a wide ambit. It could be applied to developed areas or vacant or lal dora land of an urbanised village. Also, any area that qualifies as “extremely vulnerable to disasters” or “lacks minimum standards of quality of built environment” due to a majority of the building stock being substandard or aged could be taken up for redevelopment, upgradation and renewal. Other areas that may also qualify are “unauthorised constructions and settlements on untenable sites” and inaccessible habitations and land sites. The proposed amendment says, “Once a block is notified as eligible for urban regeneration, it shall be obligatory for all land and property owners of the block to mandatorily participate with their land and property in the urban regeneration.” Govt could enforce regenerationeven if threshold isn’t achieved The ministry has proposed a similar obligatory participation of landowners once a sector is notified as eligible for “land pooling”. This has been done after the much-hyped policy hardly made any progress since being notified in October 2018. Currently, it’s completely voluntary for the landowners to participate in land pooling. According to the proposed amendments, the Act would specify that DDA can notify policies for land pooling and urban regeneration to give legal backing to the implementation of the schemes. In a prelude to introducing the urban regeneration scheme, the government has claimed that several existing areas in Delhi have developed over the past more than 100 years and some of them do not meet the norms required for healthy and safe urban habitations. It said these areas can be utilised optimally through redevelopment or urban regeneration. Currently, there is no policy for urban regeneration except in the provisions for redevelopment in the Master Plan for Delhi-2021. The process of urban regeneration will be similar to that of land pooling wherein if the voluntary participation of property owners reaches a specified threshold level, then it will be mandatory for rest of the owners to participate. What may set alarm bells ringing is that the policy spells out that the central government will have the power to direct the DDA or the local body to declare and notify mandatory urban regeneration in identified blocks to ensure time-bound planned regeneration “notwithstanding the fact that minimum threshold of voluntarily participation as specified in the urban regeneration policy may not have been achieved”. The draft amendments, which have been put in the public domain to seek feedback, define urban regeneration as “re-planning, re-construction, re-development, retrofitting, upgradation, rehabilitation, renewal (including amalgamation, pooling and reconstitution of plots) or a combination of these” of an existing developed area, vacant land or lal dora land of an urbanized village wherein landowners and government and private players can participate in the process of urban regeneration. Sources said after the amendments are approved by Parliament, the DDA will come out with rules specifying the definition of blocks. According to the draft amendments, the authority or the local body shall take over all land vested in it and may summarily evict occupants from the said land to implement the land pooling or urban regeneration policy. It says no compensation shall be paid “except as notified in the policy”. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebookTwitterInstagramKOO APPYOUTUBE
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/govt-may-order-mandatory-redevelopment-of-delhi-areas/articleshow/93648329.cms
