The second day of the 67th National Town & Country Planners Congress witnessed a number of speakers and dignitaries sharing their experiences in the fields of land acquisition and its development. In the workshop titled “Land Procurement Methods and Redevelopment”, held in the morning session, Mr. P. Suresh Babu, Head, Urban Planning and Architect, AMC, Andhra Pardesh gave a presentation of land procurement methods adopted in case of land acquisition for Amravati City. He disclosed that the State Government had acquired around 33000 acres of land in a time span of less than 6 months and the farmers had volunteered the acquisition. The main highlight of this acquisition process is that the Andhra Pardesh Government has offered a recurring income to the peasants till the time they are given returnable plots in lieu of their acquired land, he informed.In another workshop held in the afternoon on the subject of “Land Acquisition and Assembly (Local Sub Theme)”, Chief Guest of the occassion, Mr. M.P. Singh, IAS, Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Government of Punjab, said that planning is an important field as during the execution of planning lot of issues are to be taken care of. Punjab Government has set up a Revenue Commission comprising of eminent personalities of different fields and with the wisdom of the members of the Commission and public interaction upgrading of land record system is being done, he informed. In tune with the present day demand, Punjab has already started working for the land management, he revealed, adding that the digitization of land records is being done in the State to bring transparency. He said that land acquisition is not an easy task as at times it become difficult to acquire the land, as people are emotionally attached to their lands. Keeping this in mind, a land pooling policy has been devised by the State Government which ensures participation of farmers in the acquisition process, disclosed Mr. Singh.
During his address, in the workshop, Jit Kumar Gupta, former CTP Punjab, stressed on the need for a holistic approach while going for acquisition of land. He spoke about various available methods of land acquisition. Mr. Gupta said that the land available should be used in best possible manner. He made a reference of the Optimum Use of Vacant Government Land Scheme (OUVGL) of Government of Punjab which is aimed at putting best use to the available land in the State. He further said that there was a need for reinventing town planning schemes and regeneration of private land.Meanwhile, in the Plenary Session, held yesterday, Prof. Dr. Ashok Kumar, HoD, Housing, SPA, Delhi gave a presentation on the topic of “Land Appropriation for Planned Development.” He discussed the need of the land for urban development and threw light on the evolution of Land Acquisition Acts in India. He also spoke about various philosophies related to land acquisition such as Value to the Owner Principle, Just Compensation Principle and the Reasoned Compensation Principle. He also discussed the Land Pooling Policy 2013 of Delhi and also highlighted the issues related to the housing for the EWS sections and FAR. In another presentation, titled “Urban Land Policies and City Planning”, Mr. Rajesh Phadke, Chief Architect & Planner, JNPT, EPZ, Navi Mumbai, analyzed the objectives of Brown Field Development and Green Field Development. He also discussed the role of public sector model, PPP mode and private sector in Green Field and Brown Field projects. In his presentation, he discussed the case studies of Navi Mumbai and Lavasa. In a workshop following the Plenary Session, Sh. Charanjit Singh Channi, Minister for Technical Education and Industrial Training, Employment Generation and Science & Technology, Government of Punjab, who was the Chief Guest, presented his views on the issue of Policy for Industrial Development.At the end of the Congress today, Sh. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Minister for Cooperation and Jails, Government of Punjab delivered the Valedictory Address. He also presented Prof. V.N.Prasad National Best Thesis Award to the Post-Graduate students and Prof. D.S. Meshram National Best Thesis Award to the Under-Graduate students.