“A special scheme where the landowner voluntarily participates by giving his land and gets back a plot in a developed area along with other benefits. ”
Infrastructure development projects that improve connectivity and allow for faster movement of goods and services reduce unemployment, increase agriculture income and provide growth opportunities. These projects need large tracts of land. However, landowners who depend on their land for a livelihood, security and social standing, are reluctant to part with it. Land valuation and its compensation to the original landowner is a crucial issue and a high-cost proposition for the administration. No infrastructure project can be completed successfully if the landowners remain unsatisfied.
Availability of new land for development projects remains one of the major challenges faced by any government.
The Government of Maharashtra has come up with a special scheme for addressing this problem of limited availability of land and financial resources. It proposes to pool the land required for the project through voluntary participation and through land acquisition.
Under this scheme, landowners will have the choice to either voluntarily participate in the project under land pooling or opt for sale of land to the government and land acquisition. If the landowner opts for direct
IF THE LANDOWNER AGREES TO VOLUNTARILY PARTICIPATE IN THE PROJECT BY AVAILING THE LAND POOLING SCHEME, THE LANDOWNER STANDS TO BENEFIT IN A NUMBER OF WAYS:
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The participant landowner will be given back developed plots equivalent to 25% for rain fed farms and 30% for irrigated farms, in exchange of their total land pooled for the expressway. Landowners whose land will be pooled for the Krushi Samruddhi Nagar will get developed plots in the Krushi Samruddhi Nagar equivalent to 30% of their total land pooled.
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The developed plots will have all modern basic amenities such as open spaces, playgrounds, parks, roads, tap water, electricity, sewerage lines and also have access to modern services such as banking, education and health care in the Krushi Samruddhi Nagar.
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The landowner will have the choice to either sell or transfer this developed plot to a third party any time or use it for commercial or business purpose.
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To compensate the landowners for any loss of income for the interim period, they will be offered monetary compensation for a period of 10 years. The landowner will receive Rs 30,000 per acre for rain fed, Rs. 45,000 per acre for seasonal irrigated and Rs 60,000 per acre for irrigated as crop compensation for a period of 10 years. This will be increased 10% every year to take inflation into account.
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The state government has given a guarantee to buy back the allotted plot on expiry of 10 years period for a value determined on the date of signing the agreement as per the LARR 2013 with simple interest of 9% per annum for a period of 10 years.
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Participating landowners will get tax rebate on stamp duties, registration fees, agricultural land conversion charges, development charges etc.
The most important benefit of the land pooling scheme is that developed plots with more amenities are returned to the original landowner. The market price of the developed plot will have increased multi-fold and the plot is expected to become more valuable as compared to the value of the landowner’s original land. The landowner also has options to participate in a number of economic activities and enterprises in the Krushi Samruddhi Nagar.
By implementing the land pooling scheme, the Government of Maharashtra hopes to set an example of land owners being involved and benefitting directly in a development project.
The land pooling scheme will be applicable to those farmers who are willing to voluntarily participate in the scheme. The Government of Maharashtra has recently decided by its resolution dated 14th March, 2017, to purchase private land from those farmers who opt out of the land pooling scheme, through direct purchase