PANAJI
The Goa Cabinet has approved a policy for ‘land procurement’ under which the government will have the option of ‘buying’ land from landowners at a predetermined price rather than having to go through the cumbersome process of land acquisition.
The policy, as explained by the Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava will involve signing of a sale deed between the landowner and the government in exchange for a consideration that is at the market value.
According to the procedure as enlisted in the policy, a government department requiring land for public purposes will request the Collector through a prescribed form which will include the purpose of the land, number of beneficiaries of the project, the projected revenue, employment or any other benefits, area, location etc.
The Collector will then depute a team headed by a deputy Collector or any officer of junior scale of the Goa Civil Service and shall also comprise of agricultural officers, town planners, BDO of Chief Officer as the case may be to inquire into the request, which shall inspect the area and submit a detailed feasibility report.
The team will also have to obtain a consent letter from the owners of the land in the prescribed format and should be explained to the owner in the language known to him.
The Collector shall then examine the report and offer his/her comments and recommendation to the revenue department for obtaining administrative approval, finance sanction and Cabinet approval.
The revenue department shall draft a sale deed which shall be executed and registered and be exempted from payment of stamp duty and registration fees since it is a government requirement following which the land records will be mutated, partitioned or amalgamated as the case may be within one month.
To determine the price of the land to be paid to the seller, the government has drawn up a formula in which the notified land rates under the stamp Act will be taken as the base. To this a multiplication factor of 2 in rural areas and 1 in urban areas will be applied. In addition, an amount of 100% the value will be given to the landowner. Besides this, the landowner will get 12% interest on the money between the day the land is ‘procured’ and the day his money is paid.
Value of standing structures such as houses as well as crop will also be included in the consideration.
The scheme also allows for rehabilitation or resettlement of the land in the vicinity. “This process will complete in three months from the earlier three years it used to take to acquire land,” Srivastava said adding that because of the lengthy process the government has not been able to acquire any land for its projects.
