Land purchase policy fails to evoke response

Land purchase policy fails to evoke response
Now, govt to rope in private facilitators to aggregate land
Rajay Deep/TNS

Bathinda, June 10
The land purchase policy of Punjab that was introduced in 2010 to do away with the complications in the traditional land acquisition process, failed to meet the expectations in Bathinda region with only a few land holders responding.
Finding the response of the land owners much below the expectations, the government is now going to involve private facilitators/aggregators, who will get two per cent commission for aggregating lands from different owners and offer it to the government in the shape of a huge chunk meeting the requirements of the area.
The basic aim of the policy, when launched, was to make the urban land acquisition process a land owner and government-friendly affair. As per the policy, the state was to buy land for projects from owners through tender-based bidding, divided in two parts — technical and financial bids.
With high hopes from the new policy, the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), in March 2011, invited bids from six towns of the region — Bathinda, Muktsar, Mansa, Bhucho, Goniana and Rama Mandi — as it wanted to develop urban estates there.
However, the response to the invitations was quite discouraging for the authorities as no bidder came forward in three towns, namely, Rama Mandi, Goniana and Bhucho.
Moreover, only two bidders responded to the invitation for Muktsar and Bathinda (one each) but they too could not fulfill the basic conditions of minimum area (50 acres). Finding them not complying with the conditions, the BDA re-called the tenders.
Ironically, in the second offer, no bidder came forward in Bathinda while two land holders of Muktsar after clubbing their ,lands offered a bid, which the BDA shortlisted.
The tenders/bids were invited by adopting a two-envelope system through newspapers.
The first envelope that carried technical details like revenue record, registry, Jamabandi, ownership rights etc., was recently opened and only two properties one at Mansa (nearly 63 acres) and another at Muktsar (nearly 62 acres) were shortlisted.
The second envelope that contains financial bids is yet to be opened, said BDA officials.
Chief Administrator, BDA, Ravi Bhagat informed that the financial bids would be opened next week. Considering the financial viability of the project, an interim report would be sent to the district collector to fix the price. After that, negotiations would be made with the bidders and whichever land proved suitable to the cabinet sub-committee, would be purchased, he added.
Replying to a query related to response to the land purchase policy, Bhagat said, "Had we got satisfactory response from the bidders, the involvement of facilitators and aggregators, which is now going to start, would not have been required."
He maintained that the policy was beneficial for the land owners but due to lack of awareness among them, it could not evoke much response in the region.