Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has approved the draft uniform policy for inter-departmental allotment of land including Subordinate Departments, Autonomous Bodies and Boards.

The draft policy assumes significance as there was no uniform policy to deal with the inter-departmental allotment of government land, which led to inordinate delays extending up to years in the execution of critical projects, even as files to this effect kept shuffling between departments and agencies, the LG office said on Sunday.

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The policy now formulated with the approval of the LG, shall come in force with immediate effect, it said.

According to the LG office, the policy inter alia, deals with the rates at which land shall be allotted, depending upon the nature of the allotment. If the allotment is for public utility it would be free of cost, provided the allotting agency had got the land in question, free of cost.

In cases where the allotting agency got the land in question, at some cost i.e by way of acquisition, the rate will be based on no profit no loss basis (as is the case with allotment of land from DDA), for the allotment of land, it said.

As per the LG office, in cases, where the land is being allotted by the land owning department to another for commercial purposes, Zonal variant rates of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will be charged for allotment.

A seven-member Committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (GAD) after several days of deliberations formulated the policy. The Committee had held deliberations on the issue based on the suggestions and inputs received from various departments.

Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar had also convened the meeting on the subject in which officers of the Urban Development Department, L&B Department, Industries Department, Finance Department, Law Department, MCD and Education attended the meeting.

The draft policy elaborates the procedure for allotment of land by Land Owning Agency to any other government body (Allottee Agency) and specific recommendations in this regard will require the approval of the LG.

The Land and Building Department shall be the Nodal Department for the implementation of the policy and the Land Owning Agency and Allottee Agency shall mutually decide upon the nature of allotment, in terms of whether the allotment will be on lease hold or free hold basis etc.

The policy also makes it clear that prior approval of LG shall be needed for cancellation of allotment of land.

Further, a committee under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary (Revenue) consisting of members from land requisitioning body, land owning body and the concerned District Magistrate, will examine the request for allotment of land vis-à-vis development control norms, utility and opportunity cost of the project etc.

The Committee will have to submit its recommendations through Chief Secretary, before the LG for consideration and final decision.

The policy, as suggested by the Law and Justice (L&J) Department, also has suitable clauses for “keeping a record of transferred/allotment of land in the custody of concerned Administrative Department, so as to ensure proper record management in perpetuity”.