Rajasthan housing board may return farmers’ land
The Rajasthan Housing Board (RHB) is mulling a proposal to de-acquire the land of farmers in the state, with no housing projects in its bag. In Jaipur and other parts of the state, the RHB in past had started land acquisition of 5,324 hectare from farmers to develop housing projects. However, as there is no ray of hope that the RHB would construct houses in near future, the proposal has been mooted to de-acquire such land. Before the ban on construction of RHB houses was imposed by chief minister Vasundhara Raje during her Nagaur tour in 2016, the RHB had issued the award for 2,219 hectare land acquired for 22 housing projects. As land remains unutilised, there is a pressure from the farmers. Moreover, RHB is not in a capacity to pay huge compensation. At present, the RHB is left with no projects as board has not given permission to any new project, expect for lower income group (LIG) and economic weaker section (EWS) houses. The board will even construct these houses on public private and partnership (PPP) mode. However, No developer has shown interest in the RHB scheme. To construct nearly 4,000 flats under EWS and LIG category, the RHB had recently invited the proposal. As per the proposals, the RHB had invited proposal to construct these houses on nearly 2,41,000 square metre land, which was expected to add 50 lakh square feet of residential space. However, the hopes dashed as developers did not come forward for construction.
Tags : News/Views