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land auction to raise funds for infrastructure development - the right way to go?
murali772 - 4 August, 2008 | Bangalore
The Revenue department is set to begin auctioning valuable government land in and around Bangalore to fulfil Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappas promises in budget 2008-09.
The department officials have already identified 61 acres of government land of various survey numbers spread across all five taluks of the district, for auction as the first installment. "The date of auction will be finalised shortly, and it is expected to fetch around Rs 90 crore," official sources said.
These lands were actually recovered from land grabbers as per the recommendations of the then joint House Committee headed by A T Ramaswamy that probed encroachment of Government land in Bangalore urban district. The Committee had identified over 30,000 acres worth several crores. The report has come in handy for the officials who are entrusted with recovering and auctioning the land.
Yeddyurappa had announced that he would raise Rs 3,000 crore by selling government land in Bangalore, and utilise it for infrastructure development.
Sale of land in Bangalore is the only way for the Government to fund infrastructure development, especially Bangalore where it has promised to implement several projects including construction of 10 flyovers, and supply of treated tank water for drinking purpose.
In a high level meeting of Revenue department officials chaired by the Principal Secretary on July 26, it was decided to immediately take up identification of encroached Government land, initiate steps to recover them and protect them by fencing and auction. "We have been asked to take immediate steps in this regard. The work on land recovery and auction is underway," sources in Bangalore Urban district said.
According to officials, the Government needs to sell at least 5,000 acres of land to reach the target of Rs 3,000 crore. This is because the value of land in many taluks of the district -- Anekal, Bangalore north, Bangalore south, North additional and Bangalore east -- has come down. "In some areas, an acre of land would fetch as high as Rs 1.5 crore, but in others we may get Rs 50 lakh per acre," officials explained.
It was also decided in the meeting to make full use of the Ramaswamy report for retrieving the government land.
Read more at
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul312008/scroll2008073181978.asp?section=frontpagenews
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
stop the sell..
blrsri - 4 August, 2008 - 06:43
I am ready to pay upto 100Rs cess for infra in Bangalore and so will all the IT denizens of this city..petrol cess? a rupee more..people will hardly worry!
Chandrashekhar, a Congress corporator from Basavanagudi did some miraculous changes to his locality..dressed stones for the pavement..sports complex..parks..everything..where did he get the money from? Ask him how to raise money!
We cannot expect much help from the centre..they will only give assurances and work only around the NCR..Its for us to device ways!
Whose Property is BSY Selling?
psaram42 - 4 August, 2008 - 06:16
I sold my house in Mysore to build one at Bangalore. It was my Father who had bought it originally. He was apprehensive of my selling it just before he passed away in 1982. I did sell the house in 1984 inspite of knowing fully well, my fathers wish. I am hoping every day that my Father would perhaps pardon me some day where ever he is!
I can understand Mr. BSY's Predicament! Hope people of Karnataka do pardon him. He should at least see that the State gets the full benefite of the total proceeds of the sale, with least loss. Is Development worth at any cost?
---Ananthram PS, Senior Citizen
Why the hell do we pay taxes? And almost all infrastructure project these days are PPP projects on BOT basis – that means they can be self financed. I don’t understand the logic of selling land to get funds for these projects. In Bangalore public spaces have become a rare commodity. Playgrounds and open spaces are an integral part of any cities ethos. Be it in rural or urban Bangalore. These pieces of lands should be converted into wooded areas and thrown open to public.
CA sites + lung spaces?
silkboard - 4 August, 2008 - 07:30
All such land should be considered first for creating lung spaces. We have grown terribly short on them recently.
BTW, BSY and current government realize that selling such land isn't what we all like. That is why he recently decided against selling the surplus land for BIAL project. So, I am a bit surprised with these auctions.
I see no problem with auctioning smaller lots - govt will end up spending lot more money in retaining and tracking these smaller lots in developed localities.
Larger lots could go towards parks/schools (or CA sites), and in select cases, for infrastructure projects that are towards general public good (public transportation and not roads or flyovers, community center, not temple or mosque))
BSY had himself talked about an infrastructure cess. Then there is talk of PPP. Whats the dire need for auctions here?
temple, masjid, church, - - complex
murali772 - 4 August, 2008 - 08:39
Hey! Why not a grand temple, masjid, church, gurudwara, synagogue, fire-temple complex, in say the land vacated by the Race Course, or any such vacant government land, to which all roadside shrines are then ceremoniously shifted. Check
http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/06/28/shrine-entrepreneurship.
But, thereafter of course, the government has to ensure that no more shrines come up on the roadsides.
Muralidhar Rao
Do we have a masterplan?
Ravi_D - 4 August, 2008 - 09:10
What does it take to stop all sales, all plans, all design work, all everything... about B'lore until a master plan is put in place?
Seems like we cherish making life miserable for ourselves. One after another, year after another, projects, layouts, shrines, roads, flyovers, traffic lights, automobiles with unruly drivers, schools, malls, airports have all come up; and in my mind, no body seem to have a clue where we are headed. Nothing seems to have been thought through. Well, I have to correct myself here - Some one certainly has thought through some of it, including those who made money in the process 
:(.
Do we have a master plan for Bangalore? If there is one, where is it? and who has it?
And if we don't have a good one, put a moratorimn on all construction activities, until we, the city get our act together. New construction will only make things more miserable and make development all that more difficult, as if it hasn't been already!
Motto should be simple: Get data, analyze, understand the impact and consequences, plan and then (and only then) execute. Do you want your surgeon slicing into you in the OT before you go get your X-Ray and blood work done?
Any takers?
Thanks,
Ravi
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