Plans underway to implement a new Act that will mean the Collector will be responsible to hand over an encroachment-free land to BMC
Now, BMC won't have to wait for completion of compensation process and can directly implement the amenity on the plot. Representation pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to come up with a new land acquisition policy to ensure a hassle-free process and acquire an encroachment-free land.
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The BMC has been following the Land Acquisition Act 1984 according to which, if the civic body wanted to take possession of any land, it would acquire the land from the owner through the Collector. Here, BMC had to buy the land, look for encroachments, ensure their rehabilitation and provide compensation. However, this would take years for the rehabilitation to be completed resulting which the amenity never becoming a reality.
However, as per the new Land Acquisition Act 2013, BMC will still take the land through the Collector. But, the civic body won't have to look after the encroachment. Instead, the Collector will be responsible to ensure that the land is free of encroachments before handing it over to BMC.
According to the BMC officials, with the new Act, BMC won't have to wait for the compensation process to be duly completed and can directly implement the amenity on the plot.
"The compensation and the land cost will still be borne by the BMC only, but instead of waiting despite paying for the land, now once the payment is done, the BMC can implement the amenities," an official said.
The civic body has also appointed a land acquisition director to coordinate between the BMC Development Plan department and the Collector offices for the same.
Explaining this, one of the civic officials from DP department said, "Earlier after we purchased a plot, if the SRA scheme was implemented, we would get less space than what was reserved. But through this, we will be able to use the maximum potential of the land for building our reserved amenity space."
While this policy was tabled before the Improvement Committee members on Thursday, the approval was deferred to further meetings.
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