When Parsvnath builders recently gave their developed area in Seelampur metro station to Carrefour to set up India’s first foreign retail store, it was not sold but given on lease.
Here is the latest sms promotional drive by Unitech received a minute ago: “Wait is over! Unitech/Appughar launches Gardens Galleria retail shops with 9.5 per cent assured rent with lease guarantee at GIP mall Sector-18 Noida.’’
This is about raising capital from multiple investors and buying land and then leasing it and sharing the returns with the investors.
Many top builders are developing commercial spaces and leasing it out rather than selling it.
Villagers, upset with state governments for acquiring their land are increasingly demanding a similar permanent, say, a partnership of sort, in the land they are asked to vacate for various projects.
“We want the malikana haq to remain forever,’’ says Harichand, a land owner in Ullaawas, the village where most of the land is currently notified under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act by the Congress government in Haryana. The land is meant to be given to builders to make residential apartments.
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“Why shouldn’t we be a part of the selling and reselling of land,’’ he asks. He is not the only one asking for this partnership deal. But while he wants a share in the developed property which the new draft Land Acqusition Bill promises, there are groups which also want the right to lease rather than sell their property to the government or private parties.
Rajesh Bhatti who leads Kisan Sangharsh Samiti in Haryana's Palval, Noida and Ghaziabad area, says the best option for farmers, if they are not selling their land on their own, is to give it on lease. “We give our farmlands on a year's lease and get Rs 30,000 a year. The following year it is given on lease to the same person or a different person,” he says. He feels this model of leasing out land can work in residential, commercial and all kinds of development for projects of the government.
Bhatti's views are echoed by the farmers of Kanjhawla in Delhi border who have been fighting a case in the high court being forced to sell farm land for industrial purposes.
The ownership should not be taken away, say the villagers. They all want development, but want the land owners to retain the ownership.
Farmers feel they should not be denied choices. Some may want to accept 20 per cent share in the developed land as proposed in the draft Land Acqusition Bill, others may want to give land on lease for 10, 50 or 100 years and get annual or one-time royalty depending on the land use.
Builders like Parsvnath and DLF say they give commercial property on lease. Since the lease rates are high, buyers take it on a seven or eight-year lease.
This demand for a continued ownership of land has been raised in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh as well as Bhatta Parsaul when farmers clashed with Greater Noida authority over land acquisition for townships and residential apartments.
The civil society is yet to begin talking of the lease model which the people are demanding. The draft Bill makes concession to partnering land owners in development by offering 20 per cent share in the developed property. However, farmers feel they should not be restricted to a single option.
Says K B Saxena, a former bureaucrat engaged in land rights movements: “Rahul Gandhi went to Bhatta Parsaul and villagers kept telling him that they did not want to sell land. However, he came back and said they wanted bigger compensation. People are being misinterpreted and misunderstood.”
Villagers won’t agree more.