Faced with strong criticism over indiscriminate allotment of land to industries and other projects in the past few years, the Andhra Pradesh government has changed its land allotment policy. The draft policy, prepared by the state revenue department, underscores the need for “scientific and judicious allotment of government land”. The draft been circulated to all political parties for comments. Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is going to hold an all-party meeting in a few days to finalise the policy.
The draft of the Andhra Pradesh Land Allotment Policy of 2011 notes that at present there are no uniform guidelines on how much land is to be allotted for different sectors like industries, information and technology, housing and education, and the cost to be charged for the allotted land. Further, there is no mechanism at present to effectively monitor whether the land is utilised within the prescribed time and for the purpose it was allotted. In recent years, the government has mobilised resources either through sales or through auction of government lands, observes the draft.
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