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Q. Discuss the need to set up a separate authority to manage government-owned surplus land assets.

Approach:

• Briefly, unfold the government-owned surplus land assets issue till now.
• Discuss the need to set up separate authority to manage government-owned surplus land assets.
• Conclude accordingly.

Answer:

Public land holdings are the government’s most significant tangible asset in India. The government holds large parcels of land, which are surplus that are not needed or are not appropriate for provision of public service for which the agency owning the property is responsible. However, apart from Railway and Defense, other government departments do not have a specialized organization to handle commercial development of government land. This compromises the effective management of land and imposes a cost on the government, as it creates an artificial scarcity.

A separate authority is therefore required to manage these assets. Further, the need can be highlighted by:

• Inefficient use of land: The costs of holding onto lands allocated to government departments and agencies are very small. Decentralized agencies have little incentive, therefore, to get rid of them. Also, land use by decentralized government agencies do not follow agreed upon guidelines for use of land, further complicating management of surplus lands.
• Lack of data: There is no reliable and consistent inventory of public land that allows scrutiny of public land holdings by higher level authorities, in particular Finance Ministries/Departments. This is to ensure that valuable assets are not held indefinitely when they could be converted to other use, public or private.
• Avenue for corruption: The absence of a regularly updated, centralized, and consistent inventory of public land also leaves considerable scope for alienation through sale, grant, or most likely leasing, of valuable lands without scrutiny of these transactions.
• Lack of coordination: Individual agencies and ministries manage their lands for their own purposes and have no incentive to make small concessions that will have great benefits for public purposes. Land exchange could help make public land available so that urban infrastructure projects can be completed without compromising agency capabilities. Presently, the process of land exchange is cumbersome, and the uncooperative environment has taken a toll in time and costs to projects already approved.
• Inactivity by single departments: International experience shows that individual governmental agencies rarely identify excess lands voluntarily to permit disposition of lands. Successful utilization of public lands has mostly happened when a strong centralized government agency has mandated the identification of excess lands to ensure proactive management of these assets.

Therefore, it is estimated that around 60 sick government companies together owned nearly 50,000 acres of land that could be monetized. Therefore, the government has proposed setting up a National Land Management Corporation, with a professional team. The body will develop model concession agreements for land development and sale, legal management of litigation/encumbrances relating to land, development planning, design and bid process management.