Move not enough

News reports indicate that the union cabinet has taken an in-principle decision to promulgate an ordinance to repeal the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act (Ulcra). The Act prescribes a ceiling on both the ownership and possession of vacant land and grants the government the right to acquire and dispose off the vacant land for the common good. However as it has failed to achieve the desired results, it is only logical that it be abolished. It is widely believed that the abolishment of the act will free huge tracts of urban land, thereby resulting in lower land prices. This in turn will go a long way in ensuring that the vast majority of the homeless have an access to affordable housing.

However, merely doing away with the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act is unlikely to have such an effect. With the repeal of the Act, state governments will have the liberty to enact their own legislation and these are most likely to be on the lines of the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act itself. It is needless to sayhere that the legislation the various states come up with would in all likelihood be no better than the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act. Besides, it would take a long time before land that has already been taken over by the government but lies unused is actually freed. The cabinet is yet to arrive at a firm decision regarding the fate of such land. While some reports say that such land would be returned to the original owners, others indicate that this would not be the case. If the government is indeed concerned about the homeless, it should first review rent control as the homeless are also the poor. The poor cannot be expected to buy a dwelling unit, when they would rather rent one.

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