During the Covid-19 pandemic, even as the deadly Corona virus hovered over Goa, a peculiar phenomenon was taking place in another realm. There was an abnormal spurt in real estate activities around the coastal state.
A local economist, while poring over the government economic data, discovered that many land and property deals were being sealed during this period.
This had resulted in a huge jump in the government’s revenues from stamp duty and land levies. This trend has been persisting since then and is transforming the State’s skyline.
Thickly-shaded streets, lined with sprawling Indo-Portuguese style houses with their mandatory steps running up to a balcao, paddy fields, coconut and cashew orchards, mangroves, hills and forests are fast disappearing.
What’s appearing in their places are residential, commercial and industrial complexes.
Investors are pouring huge capital into the State’s real estate sector to extract lucrative returns, and the menace of land grab is now for real in Goa. All this has put tremendous pressure on the tiny State’s 3,702 sqkm land area.
Investors are pouring huge capital into the State’s real estate sector to extract lucrative returns, and the menace of land grab is now for real in Goa.
It would be pertinent to note here that Goa is the tiniest state in the country with a small coastline stretching over 103 km. This means it can take only so much strain on its real estate and coastline.
Beyond a certain limit, it will give way and collapse. And, the State seems to be very near that threshold.
Today, the threat of land crunch has become imminent enough for a local politician to come up with the proposal of creating a land bank. He wants to do this to ensure that the land, belonging to the locals and diaspora of Goa, does not slip away from their grasp.
For this, the politician is proposing to formulate a legislation to confer the right of first refusal to the State government to acquire land. Here, the interesting point is he wants to grant the right to the State, and not to Goans.
Today, the threat of land crunch has become imminent enough for a local politician to come up with the proposal of creating a land bank.
He further recommends creation of a government corporation, which would create a land bank by purchasing real estate at a price of the Land Acquisition Act.
The ownership of the land bank would perennially remain with the government, but could be leased out to partners for development and generating revenue.
This concept of land ownership is very similar to the Communidade system that has existed in Goa for centuries.
In a similar move in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the northern state’s Industries and Infrastructure Department drew up a plan late last year for creating land banks across its 75 districts for setting up industrial zones and building infrastructure.
Closer home, early this year, the state government amended the Goa Land Use (Regulation) Act, 1991, to create a regulation for use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
Closer home, early this year, the state government amended the Goa Land Use (Regulation) Act, 1991, to create a regulation for use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
It permits land vested in tenants to be used by local authorities – village panchayats, municipal corporations and municipal councils – for public or community purposes. Here, the ownership of land remains with the original owners. It does not move to the State.
Land laws, enacted without consultative processes, can be exploitative in nature. India, for long, followed the colonial statute Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which permitted State institutions to take over land without much consideration for the rights of individuals evicted from the land.
This flaw was corrected when it got amended, and The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 was passed in the Parliament.
The Act, which came into force in 2014, inserts the provision to provide fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement to those displaced during the process of land acquisition by the State.
The idea of a land bank – either in the hands of the private owners or the state – has almost always been controversial due to its dangers such as profiteering or misuse of resources because of concentration of land ownership in a few hands.
Generally, land banking serves the purpose of making available low-priced land for housing and infrastructure development during town planning. If not regulated, it can become an exploitative tool in wrong hands.
Generally, land banking serves the purpose of making available low-priced land for housing and infrastructure development during town planning. If not regulated, it can become an exploitative tool in wrong hands.
More so, Goa’s real problem is the crunching stress on its real estate sector, caused by the lowering of the entry barrier. There’s no denying Goa needs to develop, but this development has to be sustainable.
Those at the helm of its development should keep in mind that it cannot be modelled on ecologically-failed cities. Goa’s villages and cities have been developed on sound and workable design and planning.
They do not need drastic rehauling; just some tweak to tune them to present-day needs. The adage that fits here is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
