Realty giant DLF on Tuesday said the land cost and housing prices would increase sharply if the land acquisition bill is passed in the current form and the government should re-examine the bill. The country's largest real estate developer said the provisions of rehabilitation and resettlement should apply only when the government acquires land. The Land Acquisition,Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) Bill,2011,was approved by the Cabinet yesterday,and is likely to be introduced in Parliament tomorrow. "Where property transactions are between willing sellers and willing buyers,there is no justification for the government to oppose any condition of relief and rehabilitation," DLF Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said. He said private transactions take place at the market determined rates and give full compensation to the sellers. Therefore,the "conditions of R&R should be imposed only where government acquires land". The bill is believed to have a proposal that R&R provisions will apply if private companies buys 50 acres or more in urban areas and 100 acres or more in rural areas. The compensation to the land owners would be four times higher than market rate along with other benefits. Talwar said the government should re-examine the bill as this bill would make "land expensive by many times over. These costs will have to be passed on to the buyers of finished products and thereby add to the burden of the common man". Yesterday,the apex real estate body CREDAI had said the proposed Act would make land costlier by up to 80 per cent,adversely affecting the housing development in the country. Expressing disappointment over the Bill,CREDAI NCR President Pankaj Bajaj had said,"Farmers' interest have been protected,but the housing requirement of middle class have been completely ignored." Bajaj had pointed out that the land cost would go up by 60-80 per cent because of higher compensation offered to farmers in the bill and the same would be passed to the consumers.
