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Sweeping changes to bring building boom

In a far-reaching move, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government today repealed the 22-year-old Urban Land Ceiling Act.

Announcing this at a media conference, Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani said the Act would be repealed through a bill in the coming session of Parliament, beginning on May 27.

He said there was near unanimity among political parties to repeal the Act, which had become an 'instrument of widespread corruption' and was hampering housing activity.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet this morning.

He also announced a package of measures to stimulate the housing construction activity in the country and to check widespread corruption in this sector.

He said the Cabinet also decided to examine extending the concessions available to the infrastructure industry.

The minister said the housing industry had for long been demanding that it be brought on par with the infrastructure industry. He said his ministry had discussed the matter with the finance ministry and the issue would be resolved soon.

Jethmalani said the government could have issued an ordinance to repeal the Act but ''we decided against it because Parliament will begin soon''. He was confident that the decision to repeal the Act would go a long way in helping the government realise its goal of constructing two million houses annually.

The Act had not only restricted the supply of land in the urban areas but also led to unnecessary harassment of land holders.

He said the Inder Kumar Gujral government had, in November 1997, decided that there was no objection to repealing the Act in such a manner that all pending cases/ proceedings would abate. The United Front government had directed that action in this regard be taken only after the requisite number of state legislatures passed the necessary resolution requesting that the Act be repealed. This had now been done, and the act was being repealed, he added.

Regarding the approval of building laws, Jethmalani noted that at present getting approval from civic bodies for building plans was an extremely cumbersome procedure, leading to corruption and harassment. To make things simpler, it was necessary to take away discretionary powers of the sanctioning authority. It was also necessary to take away the dictatorial powers of junior engineers, planners and the field staff who amassed huge wealth due to the misuse of such powers.

Therefore, it was proposed that chartered architects be allowed to sanction building plans for all residential buildings. They should also be permitted to sanction building plans of commercial and institutional nature, upto a plinth area of 25,000 sq ft.

Moreover, sanction would be deemed 30 days after an application for a building plan had been made. If any objections were raised and were replied to, the local body must clear the building plan within a week from the receipt of such clarification.

On the completion of a building, the chartered architect must certify that the building was constructed according to the plans sanctioned and that there was no violation of law. If any chartered architect certified falsely, his licence would be cancelled. This would liberate the citizens from the local bodies's clutches.

Jethmalani said the government had also decided to involve the private sector in a big way in the housing sector. Foreign capital is welcome on a competitive basis.

He said the government was thinking of giving housing finance companies concessions for raising resources for building houses for the vulnerable sections.

In order to boost housing activity, it was proposed that the entire cost of construction taken as loan should be allowed deduction under the income tax, the minister said.

UNI