The aftereffects of the Land Ceiling Act in Kochi

[zedin]

Although the Land Ceiling Act (LCA) is a Central Act, its implementation is a state subject.  The major difference between the ceiling on urban land and laws relating to rural land reform is that most land reform regulations call for transfer of ownership from the recorded proprietor to the actual tiller.  Even where the agriculture land ceiling laws provide for the state to take over and distribute land, there is an implicit or explicit provision that the state would make over the acquired land to the landless and the marginal farmers.  Actually the state of Kerala has had made progress in this respect.  But the sad fact is that in spite of such developments the people who got land are no willing to till it or hand it over to others.

So far as ceiling on urban land is concerned, the principal purpose is to transfer ownership of land to the state, which could then utilize it for a multiplicity of purposes, which in the opinion of the state, subserves the common good.  There is nothing in this Act or in the various regulations framed there under, whereby the acquired land is to be almost automatically retransferred to the urban landless.

Section 21 of the Act makes it virtually mandatory for exemption to be given to any one if he promises to use 50 percent of his land for construction of houses measuring less than 40 sq m, and the rest for dwellings measuring not more than 80 sq m, in the first two years.  When considering the developments in apartments Kochi is witnessing similar pattern of housing development especially among people with medium sized plots of land.  The existence of this section however does mean that in fact any owner of land in excess of the ceiling limit has merely to prepare a scheme for construction of the dwelling unit and then the land would be given exemption.  In other words, while this provision of law may or may not encourage the construction of small dwelling units, it certainly prevents the transfer of vacant land to public ownership.

[Red Arrow]

Are you proposing we do something like this in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA?

[Conan71]

Um, this isn't the KochiNow forum.

[dbacks fan]

Um, this isn't the KochiNow forum.

Yes, it's been outsourced.

[Conan71]

Yes, it's been outsourced.

To some company down the Kochi Minh trail?