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59th National Town and Country Planners Congress Panchkula:
Land as Resource for Urban Development
PROCEEDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS |
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The 59th National Town and Country Planners Congress was organized from 10th to 12th February 2011 at Inderdhanush Auditorium, Panchkula, Haryana. The Congress discussed the main theme Land as Resource for Urban Development with sub-themes: Sustainable Development of Urban Land ; Land for Housing the Urban Poor ; Public-Private Participation in Urban Development and Legal Framework .
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Central and state governments have both extended their liberal support for the organization of the Congress. Our main sponsor for the Congress was the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. The Congress was co-sponsored by Government of Haryana; Department of Town and Country Planning, Haryana; Department of Urban Local Bodies, Haryana; Haryana Urban Development Authority; Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation; Haryana State Agricultural Marking Board; Haryana Housing Board; besides Delhi Development Authority. |
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Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Hon ble Chief Minister of Haryana in his inaugural address stated that Haryana is a pioneering state in implementing the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for urban development. It is popularly known as the Gurgaon Model. While the state government develops the basic infrastructure including trunk services, the private agencies develop colonies for residential, commercial, industrial and other uses. Even the state s own agencies like HUDA and HSIIDC also act as licensees. Thus, there is a level playing field among various developers for urban development.
Haryana government has also formulated a progressive policy for low cost or affordable housing projects. Under this policy, preference is given to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and Class-IV employees of the state government. Haryana has also evolved a process of transparent allotment of EWS plots or flats in the licensed colonies at a fixed price. These are allotted only to the deserving people belonging to BPL category. The state has allotted 50 percent of the EWS plots in the licensed area to the Haryana Housing Board at a fixed price.
The Chief Minister stated that the state is committed to the goal of inclusive urban development. The interests of the poor and middle class have always received our full and focused attention. Government has fixed the rate of allotment of EWS plots or flats. We also have the obligation of allotting 25 percent of the total plots developed by private developers on no-profit-no-loss bases. HUDA itself is a no-profit-no loss organization. The rates of these plots are fixed by the state government.
Land is a very important resource which needs to be judiciously utilized. The state has taken a decision to increase the town density for optimum utilization of this precious resource. The planners can use land as a resource for financing urban transport projects. This can also be done on PPP mode. Furthermore, bus terminals, bus stops, metro stations can also be taken under PPP. This on the one hand reduces the burden on pubic exchequer, and on the other hand, it brings in the best urban designs, space utilization and private sector efficiencies in the system.
As you know, urban planners face various challenges in the state. These include creation of infrastructure, improvement in the basic urban services especially for the poor, increasing capacities for pro-poor urban development, job creation and enhancing employment opportunities for the poor, to name only a few. We are trying to address these challenges in a systematic manner. Haryana government is making concerted efforts to built quality infrastructure in all the towns of the state. Our towns especially those in the neighborhood of Delhi are becoming more and more popular for people to settle down for residential and professional purposes. We are also seeking to improve transport and communication facilities between Delhi and our towns, for example, Gurgaon is already linked with Delhi Metro. Faridabad will also be linked soon. We are also pursuing the project to link Bahadurgarh with Delhi Metro. These links will make communication between Delhi and Haryana a little easier. The Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Global Corridor is a unique initiative of Haryana government. It will free Delhi from all kinds of traffic which is neither originating nor terminating in Delhi. This expressway will also act as a catalyst for development of different economic activities and urbanization.
As we all know there cannot be any urban development without the primary resource of land. Because of the unprecedented urbanization, land in Haryana has come under tremendous pressure. Just as urbanization and industrialization are essential for the development of our economy, the interests of land owners and agriculture are equally important for us. We have to strike a balance. Accordingly, our Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy have been carefully conceived. We have taken care of the concerns of land owners so that they do not feel cheated while parting away with their land. As you know this policy has been appreciated all over the country.
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There are several activities such as those pertaining to agriculture, industries, housing, commercial centers, infrastructure provision, and others, which are competing for land for their location. This competition among activities generates demand for land.
Land in cities is a valuable resource. Attachment to land is not emotional; it has a material reality in our lives. All social classes look upon land from different perspectives. People who are endowed with productive resources like capital, view land as a resource to be used for investment for making more money through the process of accumulation. People who own built environment such as a house on a piece of land, see land as a resource to appropriate rent. People who could be broadly classified as workers view land as a commodity to be consumed, for example, housing for the urban poor. They do not view land as a resource for making more money, they view land and built environment as something which is necessary for their own reproduction, to put it simply for their own existence.
As land development becomes routine affair, land rapidly gets urbanized in the peripheries of all small, medium and large cities of the country. But it is much more visible in the peripheries of metropolitan cities where endless building activity is taking place, creating urgency to acquire land but this has serious consequences for the environment and food security of metropolitan cities as large tracts of productive agriculture land in the peripheries is taken for urban development. Unprecedented population pressure and demands of society on scarce land for urban development are exacerbating conflicts over access and rights to land and increasing competition between agriculture and other sectors. Taking all these aspects into consideration the issue of land as a resource has to be subjected to appropriate analysis. Accordingly the theme of the 59th National Town and Country Planners Congress of ITPI would focus on "Land as Resource for Urban Development".
Land as resource for urban development is an old notion whereby it is presumed, that land could be developed and sold at a profit to middle and higher income groups with the clear objective of use of such receipts for further urban development and also meeting social responsibility of providing shelter benefits to economically weaker sections of the society. While it is a noble planning strategy to serve the welfare needs of low income groups, success would depend on how profits obtained from such strategy are deployed so that eventual benefits reach the less endowed groups of people.
The efficient management of land is vital for economic growth and development of any nation. There is an imperative need to put in place an integrated mechanism capable of responding effectively to the challenges of managing our scarce land resources - especially those arising from globalization, liberalization and privatization. The challenge is also to develop and promote sustainable and productive land use systems and to protect critical resources and ecosystems through balancing land, water and other resource uses, providing a basis for negotiation, participatory decision making and conflict resolution among stakeholders, as well as providing an enabling political, social and economic environment.
Over the past two decades sustainable development has been a major topic on the political agenda of governments and international organizations. The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and the publication of Agenda 21 constituted a catalyzing event on sustainable development in the new perceptions in planning and management of land resources. National and international institutions including the UN have for many years focused on promoting sustainable and equitable land use and urged the formulation of land and land use policies aimed at both conserving land resources and optimizing their use in the larger interests of the society.
It is well known fact that urban development is sustainable when it is self-financing, environmentally sound, legally tenable, socially acceptable, and physically feasible. Currently, there is a lot of emphasis that urban development should be such that does not cast a burden on the development agency. Financially viable projects are thus more favored and implemented. Through efficient planning, potential of land can be enhanced and utilized, through land pricing, for financing urban development by both public and private sectors.
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Land as a resource for sustainable development, among other things, therefore, implies equitable access to all classes of the society according to need. How to determine social need for land or built environment is a collective responsibility clearly embedded in the economic and social context of the times. |
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Housing the urban poor has become a thorny issue in Indian urbanization. Number of families without adequate shelter keeps on increasing every year, every decade. Land as a resource for housing the urban poor cannot work without large scale employment guarantee programmes for the same group. Separation of planning policies from social and economic policies would always lead to the failure of policies. Horizontal and vertical integration of policies is an integral part of successful outcomes like decent housing for the poor. Building adequate number of low income dwelling units for the urban poor may not provide a successful alternative in the absence of reasonable income earning opportunities or state run social security networks. The management of land resources for housing poor has a major impact not only on the welfare of poor but on environment. It is essential to promote poverty reduction through more productive, equitable and sustainable use of land resources by facilitating the identification, adoption and implementation of more effective strategies.
Often, public sector organizations do not have the financial resources and technical skills necessary to effectively deal with the challenges of upgrading the nation s aging infrastructure. They have to reach out to private sector organizations for assistance.
Haryana Government has been one of the pioneer states in privatizing land and urban development. It would be useful to know through case studies of cities in Haryana how far so called liberalization of land and urban development process have led to reducing housing inequalities among social classes, noted the ITPI President.
There are several good practices as well as some malpractices in this context. Good practices need to be disseminated. Planning legislation in most of the states does not effectively cater to this approach of using land as a resource. Government of India is re-examining the Land Acquisition Act. It has also introduced, recently, Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and The Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2010. Government of India is also preparing a Model Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act.
The institutional mechanism of public private partnerships needs to be encouraged but the question arises - can we think of collective decision making to achieve collective ends when developing urban land. Of course we can and the institutional mechanism of public private partnerships is precisely a result of such thinking. Therefore, there is a need to provide legislative support to promote use of land as a fiscal tool for urban development. Legislation is also needed to curb malpractices in land management and development. Legal framework focusing on land as a resource has been in the news recently both in Delhi as well as in Haryana. Flawed land legislation and out of date tax systems allow large scale land speculation, and induce skewed land access. Therefore, a sound legal framework and institutional arrangement is necessary for appropriate land management.
Shri B. Mehendra, Vice-President, ITPI, read out the messages received from dignitaries including Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Hon ble President of India; Shri Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Hon ble Vice-President of India; Shri Jagannath Pahadia, Hon ble Governor of Haryana; Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Hon ble Chief Minister, Government of Haryana; on the occasion of 59th national Town and Country Planners Congress.
An exhibition on the theme "Land as Resource for Urban Development: Success Stories" was also organized to provide an opportunity to various stakeholders to showcase their efforts and success stories, which was inaugurated by Shri D.P.S. Nagal, IAS, Chief Administrator, HUDA.
Plenary Session on the theme "Land as Resource for Urban Development" was chaired by Dr. A.N. Sachithanandan, President ITPI. In this session the key speakers were Shri E.F.N. Riberio, Dr. S.K. Kulshrestha and Shri J.B. Kshirsagar. Shri Tapas Bhattacharaya and Shri Naresh Mehtani were the Rapporteurs.
Workshop - I on the sub-theme "Sustainable Development of Urban Land" was chaired by Shri E.F.N. Riberio, Past President ITPI. In this session the key speakers were Dr. S.P. Bansal, Prof. Pratap Rawal, Shri A.K. Jain, Ms. Anuradha and Shri. J.K. Gupta. Shri Sunil Mehra and Shri K.K. Yadav were the Rapporteurs.
Workshop - II on the sub-theme "Urban Land for Housing the Urban Poor" was chaired by Shri J.S. Ghuman, Past President ITPI. In this session the key speakers were Shri B.N. Singh, Dr. Subrato Chattopadhyay, Dr. K.K. Pandey, Dr. K.R. Thooyavan, Shri M.D. Lele, Shri Pradeep Kapoor and Shri Hansal Shukla. Shri P.K. Behera and Shri Rajesh Kaushik were the Rapporteurs.
Workshop - III on the sub-theme "Public - Private Participation in Urban Development" was chaired by Shri A.K. Patharkar, Past President ITPI. In this session the key speakers were Shri Sanjay Verma, Dr. S.P. Sekar, Shri Rajeev Malhotra, Shri V.K. Goyal and Ms. Chitra. Dr. Sandeep Raut and Shri R.S. Batth were the Rapporteurs.
Workshop - IV on the sub-theme "Legal Framework" was chaired by Shri V. Satyanarayan, Past President ITPI. In this session the key speakers were Prof. B.K. Sengupta, Dr. R.K. Jain, and Shri M.L. Chotani. Shri R. Srinivas and Shri Narender Kumar were the Rapporteurs.
Shri Rao Dan Singh, Chief Parliament Secretary while delivering the valedictory address, stated that "Haryana" is leader in Public-Private Participation in Urban Development. Treating affordable housing as a commercial opportunity as well as a welfare programme is relevant. State Government of Haryana has formulated a policy for low cost affordable housing projects, whereby preference for allotment is given to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. We have also ensured that allotment of EWS plots and flats in the licensed colonies are given to lower strata of the society. State government as a welfare state recognizes that acquisition of land under the statue and the alienation of land owners from their source of livelihood could be a painful process, notwithstanding the payment of compensation for the same as per law. Therefore, in order to minimize pain of the affected persons, Government of Haryana has notified the policy which includes a new scheme of "No Litigation Incentive". In this policy an additional amount equal to 20 percent of the basic rate of land determined by the Land Acquisition Collector (excluding the interest and the solatium components) as an incentive for "No Litigation" to such landowners who opt for not to challenge the acquisition of their land and to accept the compensation amount as awarded and undertake not to seek a reference under Section 18 of the Act qua the amount of compensation. There is also policy for allotment of residential plots in cases where a self-occupied residential house is acquired for unavoidable reasons and also "oustee-category" residential plots in cases of land acquisition for development of infrastructure by HUDA, HSIIDC and HSAMB. This policy is also lauded by many States.
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Sustainable urban development specifically means achieving a balance between the development of urban areas and protection of the environment with an eye to equity in employment, shelter, basic services, social infrastructure and transportation in urban areas. With rapid expansion of urban population around the world, there has arisen a wide awareness about minimizing the environmental costs of urbanization. Today, although, colonizers and developers are seeking clearances as per provisions of the Ministry of Environment and Forests Notification dated 14 September 2006, but in recent times, these cities have become places of urban environmental degradation and wasteful use of resources, which is proving to be costly to generations - present and future. In order to mitigate the problems, we are required to minimize depletion of non-renewable resources and resort to environmentally sustainable economic developments. In the state of Haryana, we have made it mandatory to provide Solar Water Heating System for the residential plots more than 1 Kanal and also compulsory for Group Housing Colonies, Hostels, Jails, Hotels, Industries, where there is a requirement of hot water for processing. In order to save electricity, the use of Compact Florescent Lights for internal and campus lighting in the licensed colonies has been made compulsory. As administrators and urban planners, we should give much thrust on saving water, and should conserve rainwater by way of effective planning of storm water drainage, rainwater harvesting and also by introducing the dual water pipeline system.
The urban poor are the main concern before the town planners because there are multiple effects on the functioning of city due to non-consideration of the said parameter in the land use planning. In order to achieve the dream of slum free India, which requires rationalizing population density norms in cities and land for the urban poor to be allocated in development plans.
In the Valedictory Session, the National Best Thesis Award popularly known as Prof. V.N. Prasad Best Thesis award for 2010 was given to Ms. Sukanya Misra for the thesis titled "Integrated Planning and Development of Old Mills and Derelict Industrial Areas - Ahmedabad" from IIT Kharagpur. Commendation Certificate was awarded to Shri Deep Narendra Patel for the thesis titled "Impact of Planning Regulations and Mechanism on Land Supply and Shelter Cost Affordability - A Case of Western Ahmedabad" from CEPT Ahmedabad.
After two days of detailed deliberations, discussions and participation of more than 350 delegates, the following main recommendations emerged.
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- With rapid urban population growth in India, there would be an increased demand for land which is a rapidly diminishing resource and requires innovative approaches for its judicious use.
- With increased protection accorded to forests, wetlands, multi-cropped agricultural lands, natural and built heritage sites and the like, sustainable development of urban land at higher intensities is inevitable.
- Potential of urban land, as defined by intensity of its use, can be increased through innovative spatial planning approaches and in some cases, potential of a parcel of land can be transferred to another site using TDR.
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Having noted the above, the Conference recommended the following: |
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- Land policies for urban growth and development should be embedded in the state vision and the participatory governance should be introduced as stipulated in the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendment Acts (CAA). Socio-economic investments should be made through integrated and time bound Spatial Development Plans at regional (metropolitan /district); settlement (municipality / village Panchayat); and local area (electoral wards) levels followed by five year development programmes of critical components. This calls for:
- Modifications in the state urban and regional development planning laws which should be made to incorporate participatory urban governance and innovative urban land management approaches.
- Modifications in the existing legal framework for land acquisition and introduction of land assembly through negotiations for protecting the interests of the land owners and farmers to be ensured.
- State governments to make urgent efforts to ensure access to improved mapped data.
- Town planning departments need to be overhauled not only by providing physical infrastructure but also by capacity building amongst professionals.
- Urban land and its potential should be used judiciously for planned and inclusive development of urban areas. This requires:
- Development of sustainable density patterns to be encouraged.
- To achieve the above, a review of spatial norms and standards and also models including Output Based Aid (OBA) model to serve poorer communities is required.
- We must also work out strategies for supply of developed land at right locations and affordable price for urban poor.
- Land development and disposal policies should be reviewed in the light of environmental sustainability, climate change, energy conservation and inclusive planning and development objectives.
- Private sector participation in land assembly and real estate development should be promoted and regulated so that:
- It is within the framework of statutory development plans of cities and regions in order to ensure that the resultant development is planned and inclusive.
- It fulfills its commitment to provide public needs and is accountable for any delays or deficiencies in services. Planning, whether by the private or public sector to be made transparent and accountable in financial and other matters.
- Sustainability is an inclusive concept which covers social, ecological, economic and governance aspects. The mandatory EIA norms need to be revisited so as to embrace quasi-legal policy mandates for social housing, provisions for informal sector employment, conservation of heritage (built and cultural), social infrastructure, governance reforms, security as safety and gender equity.
- The public, particularly the beneficiaries, needs to be sensitized about benefits of the 74th CAA through meetings, seminars, electronic and print media so that the processes of planning and development of rural and urban settlements become complementary to each other and ensure rural urban continuum.
- It is high time to make urban poor an integral part of urban structures with provision of land for housing for the urban poor.
- Rajasthan Model for affordable Housing Policy, 2009, which stipulates reservation of land, houses and flats to the extent of 50 percent for EWS and LIG categories, may also be adopted as model for housing the urban poor.
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