No policy to build new towns by TK Arun <Why should land be forcibly be taken away from peasants, big and small? Why can't we create conditions in which peasants happily and voluntarily make land available for building towns, factories, etc?
This is not all that difficult. The farmers who sold land to builders who built Delhi's suburb of Gurgaon are fabulously rich, compared to their brethren who continue to till the land. The main thing is to make sure that farmers get a price that rids them of anxiety and uncertainty about future incomes. It is not easy to replicate Gurgaon everywhere, for the simple reason that every new town cannot be near Delhi or Mumbai. We need policy slightly more evolved than allowing farmers to sell land to builders at mutually agreed prices. Two things need to be done. Entire zones, measuring tens of thousands of sq km, need to be earmarked for free, automatic conversion from farm land to urban land, on the owner's request. Right now, such conversion is an arbitrarily granted form of patronage, which can be purchased from politicians and bureaucrats at a very high price. This must change. This will immediately fetch the farmer a much higher price than at present for his land - he would sell it after converting it to commercial land. Further, farmers need to be organised into builders of towns. This is not some idle dream but what a group of farmers have accomplished in a town called Magarpatta, near Pune. Farmers can form limited liability companies, pooling their land as capital. They can lease out the land, or better still, create built-up area of the kind required for offices and factories and lease out this built-up area. If private builders can access credit on the strength of their notional land banks, why shouldn't farmers' companies get the requisite credit for their projects on the strength of their real land bank? They can then sell a variety of services to those who come and occupy their built-up spaces. Of course, these are just some of the many possible policy options. The point is that we need to think of those options. Now.> In Goa, environment and heritage have to be factored into the making of land available. In addition, there has to be provision for all support services of high quality, not just rampant building construction. Let's hope GBA is digesting ideas like the foregoing mushrooming elsewhere in the country nowadays. Goa's problem is not unique.
