Exploring feasibility of land pooling/land readjustment instruments in informal settlements –a perspective from the ground (India)
- ASCI: Journal of Management
- 49(2Spl), Sep, 2020: p.161-176
The assembly of privately owned land parcels, having no clear titles, for comprehensive urban redevelopment is a vastly unexplored area with immense knowledge gaps. To a large extent, cities in India reflect this knowledge deficit, with most parts of the cities growing without conforming to the statutory plans. Many states have made efforts in strengthening the private property regime through land/property records modernisation, conferring land rights through land titling projects/programmes. However, these initiatives remain agnostic to the land use planning processes. Mechanisms for assembling land remain limited, especially in settlements with ambiguous or no land titles. In recent times, with the increased contestations over land, it has been near impossible to acquire land through voluntary exchange or using the instrument of ‘eminent domain’. Taking the lead from countries like Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, explorations have been made to implement spatial tools like Land Pooling (LP)/Land Readjustment (LR) for assembling land in India. Public institutions mostly deploy these tools to execute large infrastructure projects. However, in its present state, LP/LR is not relevant in informal settlements having ambiguous/no legal titles. Further, these tools need to be implemented in close coordination with the revenue administration, which oversees the ownership aspects of the land parcels. At present, these two regimes- land use planning steered by the urban development authorities/urban local bodies, and land management under the revenue administration operate in silos. – Reproduced
Land pooling, Land readjustment, Land readjustment instruments, Informal settlements