1) No job to his family as he is not competent enough to take any job except farming.
2) He though his peice of land as pride and happy doing the cultivation on it , even if it does not provide him handsome earning, but he is busy in his life doing some productive job

3) Government give farmer lumpsum money; the farmer has nothing to do and has access to lot of money.. he start drinking and his money goes down the drain, please visit any delhi village to find out the truth.. you will find many family in delhi villages who lost their male member to alcholism.

4) Now the same applies to other authorities who are just grabing the land of poor farmeres for the sake of development… the land acquired by Noida authority for Rs 300 Sq meter from farmer is sold to unitech for Rs 11000 Sq meter.. Noida authority didn’s spent a single penny on that particular piece of land for development and sold it to Unitech within 8 months… what is that robbing the poor farmer on pretext of outdated land acquisition law.. and giving the land to rich (SEZ) , It’s pathetic to see this scenario everywhere… karnatka, Bengal, Maharastrya, Haryana

5) we are creating a hell for ourself and for our future generations… by transforming farmer to criminals..

7) Why government is not thinking to make farmers a stake holders in the development…

Problem faced by the entire society of Delhi has it’s genesis in the very agency suppose to solve the very problem “DDA”. Delhi Development Authority was formulated to develop the National Capital of India and has exclusive and monopolistic rights over entire development activities and land of Delhi. DDA acquires agricultural land from the farmer for developing it into residential colonies / commercial complexes / institutional areas / public areas etc at no profit-no loss basis (but most of the times it ends up only losing money). Instead of 1 billion countrymen taking pride in capital city of their country, Delhi looks like nation’s capital of shame, corruption, and slums, where all roads lead to squalor.

Delhi’s side of story: - DDA is a monopoly with no accountability or monitoring, so always have fancy plans and nil execution. Inferior construction (DDA flat sells for 1/2 - 1/3rd the price compared to same size of flat constructed any other developer), endless time ( Dwarka under development for past 35 years, compare it’s development with Gurgaon or Noida or even Greater Noida – which in spite of location and other disadvantages, nil monetary support from Govt. took only 1/3rd the time to achieve much better development) nil accountability (DDA looses money despite of selling land for 400 times to 2000 times the acquisition price), almost negligible supply of fresh housing / commercial etc (on average 500 residential plots / flats sold/ possession given every year ). All this has created huge land shortage and exorbitant profits for DDA and exorbitant price of a basic necessity for human race – housing. Land which was acquired by DDA 30 years back at approximately Rs. 10,000/ acre is either still under litigation with the farmer or pending for development with DDA. Whatever limited land DDA sold went for Rs. 20-70 crore/ acre (Rs.40, 000/ to Rs 1, 50,000/ yard). DDA claimed it had to rake in this profit for subsidized land for schools, charities, social cause or develop infrastructure etc. This also now being sold through auction for with minimum reserve price of Rs. 20 crore per acre and we all know the status of infrastructure. Since all land is horded by DDA there is acute shortage of various types of Residential, Commercial, Institutional Land resulting in exorbitant prices of residential , commercial , hotels , schools , hospitals etc. ( cost of all these in Delhi is more than London , New York and most other national capitals). Because of non-availability of land people are forced to do illegal building construction in non-confirming areas by paying bribe to same officials who are otherwise responsible for the planned development and live always under insecurity of loosing their home, shop by demolition. IS THIS OUR FREE COUNTRY OR ARE WE STILL RULED BY FOREIGNERS?

Farmer’s side of Story:- Farmer are forced to sell their Agricultural Land to DDA at much cheaper price (after several increases now DDA pays Rs 26,00,000/ acre over five years as compensation to farmer) than market price of their land (in Delhi and in entire NCR Region up to a radius of 150 Km from Delhi market price of agricultural land is between Rs. 60,00,000 to Rs. 20, 00,00,00/ acre). Since compensation is less than market price farmer remains ultimately landless and unemployed and land owner becomes a farm laborer or lawless mob. SO SHOULD AN INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY TAKE PRIDE IN MAKING ITS FARMERS INTO LABORERS JUST TO BENEFIT DDA?

Common Man’s side of story- Faced demolition and sealing activity of illegal construction in houses, shops and offices in entire Delhi. Have you heard of similar situation in Gurgaon, Noida - Greater Noida, Faridabad or elsewhere in NCR or other countries? Also please compare infrastructure development / construction quality of DDA with that of NOIDA or Greater Noida (yet another govt. body) or private developers (Gurgaon). Since DDA provided negligible fresh legal supply of land in-spite of 90% population being home less so people are forced to either accept DDA flats after 35 years of waiting period if they still survive (flats booked in 1960 are yet to be constructed) or do illegal construction in agricultural land leading to present mess of illegal colonies with nil infrastructure or water/ electricity supply. Instead of taking responsibility of basic amenities for the population of the city, citizens living in illegal colonies are used as a vote bank and before every election the Govt. says such colonies will be legalized. THESE ILLEGAL COLONIES (HOUSING > 80% OF DELHI’S POPUTATION) HAVE LESS BASIC AMENITIES THAN EVEN ZOOLOGIAL PARKS IN MOST WORLD CAPITALS.

It is imperative that all citizen of this free nation get a stake in the development of the national capital. Farmer can be given a option to sell their land at market price to either DDA or private developer (avoiding long delays because of litigation), DDA can do the master planning and basic infrastructure like road, water, metro, public parks etc. and charge for the same to the builder, builder can be given a task of time bound development of world class colonies and apartments and since there will be abundant supply profiteering will not happen and prices will come down. Incentive to take bribe and do illegal construction will die out. Another method could be that DDA can make the farmer partner in development and gives part of the developed land as the compensation for his agricultural land so that he has a stake in the faster development and is not forced into causing legal or physical hindrances.

gurgaon is not just dlf. there is sushant lok, there are developments by itc like laburnum and garden estate. there are also many HUDA colonies.

the reason why the entire place is a mess is simply because the ‘central planner’ in HUDA is ‘planning’ the layout of roads.

it is not true that private highway developers are unwilling to invest in roads. i recall the early 90s when malaysia’s renong berhard put up a RS 70,000 crore project to link up the 5 metros. their project was never approved. the contract went to the state monopoly NHAI, and see what a mess they have landed us in. the indian express recently carried a series of investigations regarding the ‘golden quadrilateral’ and reported that nowhere is the project nearing completion. corruption in NHAI is endemic: recall the murder of satyaendra dubey.

when you say that the govt of delhi has no business in connecting the metro to gurgaon, you fail to see that good resource allocation demands that money be invested where good returns are expected, and that is all. even if the metro is a state-owned company, it should follow commercial dictates and extend its lines to areas where it can rake in the most business. this is one thing they are not doing. the first line from shahadra to tees hazari courts has nothing to do with ‘mass transit’ as no masses transit betwen these points. the line is a political one, with nothing to do with commerce. similarly, the second, fully underground line between delhi university and central secretariat aims at appeasing interest groups like students and babus (in an university system where students mainly end up as babus anyway!) note that the MAGLEV line in shanghai connects shanghai airport to the city centre. the delhi metro will never connect the airport, and it totally avoids south delhi, and all the busy commercial markets there, where masses actually transit.

the market process is characterised by decentralised decision making. and that is why it works. when many, many individual firms and businesses decide to invest in what they anticipate consumers will buy, everything works and everything is in abundance. it is this approach rather than centralised decision making which will solve the problems we suffer from today.

zoning laws reflect central planning of cities. i am in favour of free, decentralised, individual decision making, by highway developers, land developers, builders and investors in real estate. i am opposed to all government regulation and any form of planning whatsoever.

I dont quite get your point about industries… Could you clarify?

NCR already has private development, atleast in NOIDA and Gurgaon. Infact I think DLF is also developing areas like Rewari…I agree that if the land is developed privately, roads and everything should be responsiblity of private developers. But dt you need zoning for that? What is the reason for people wanting to build shops in residential areas. firsy they are cheaper, secondly you have high visbility. In India, with poor regulations, you dont even have to worry about providing parking..the road is where you park! There is no getting around this desire to be cheap because residential properties will always be cheaper than commercial properties-that is true all over the world.

Ha, Delhi Govt does not control Gurgaon and Noida, why should it pay for connection between Delhi and Gurgaon? The Haryana govt has to do that right? BTW, the internal Dwarka connection has been paid for by the DDA and not Delhi govt, similarly the Delhi Metro beyond Delhi’s borders has to be paid for by the respective govts… Will Maharastra govt pay for a link between Bangalore and Mysore?

I agree about the monopoly bit about alcohol, so what are the poor ignorant Dilli-waalah supposed to do? Brew their own beer? Atleast this govt has the guts to open some private vends… where you can get chilled beer…with our propensity for protests and ability to be hypocritacal about alcohol, you cant really blame the govt so much!

Rest of your piece is a rant which is not really worth replying to. You seem to imply that the rest of the country is so much different from Delhi…think the moral police closed down the dance bars in Mumbai…. though I do agree we need more cities. Let private developers take charge of them. Govt has no business developing cities but that does not preclude the need for zoning and regulations..

You talk about NHAI being a monopoly, you think private companies are dying to develop roads? No ways, all these deals with NHAI are sweetened to make it viable for private developers to recover their cost. Even the great US highway network was entirely developed by thw Govt. What should ideally be privatized? Railways, because it is a developed asset and the govt has no business running it.

BTW, I shifted out-to the East coast, if you know what I mean.

tc

and please dont dt get angry when you reply to comments! You always have the option of disabling comments.

gurgaon has not been ‘laid out’ by private developers. the haryana urban development authority HUDA ‘laid out’ the internal so-called roads and granted building permissions to private developers and also sanctioned their building plans.

as far as factories go: private developers everywhere also develop industrial areas. in india, all these activities are state monopolies, and it is this that creates the problem, because a monopolist will always raise prices and lower quality.

a further problem is the state monopoly on roads; for without connecting roads, private developers cannot develop cheap outlying lands and suburbs.

as far as areas like karol bagh, lajpat nagar or chandni chowk are concerned, the best bet would be to allow private real estate development in the NCR combining private roads with private suburbs - residential, commercial and industrial. in some time, a whole lot of cheaper and better (and more functional) options will emerge and the city of new delhi will re-adjust. business and residences will slowly shift out of karol bagh etc, prices will come down there, and there will be scope for re-development in the future.

note that by connecting the metro rail to dwarka, the delhi govt is siding with a DDA development. no one lives in dwarka yet! but those who invested are making huge gains. a better govt would have built a link first to gurgaon, where a lot of people already reside, and where a lot of property has already been developed over the years.

it is this ‘twin monopoly’ - over land as well as roads and rail - that is the root cause of our problems.

but delhiwallas are woefully ignorant of the evil of state monopoly. they don’t see the national highway authority as a monopolist just like the erstwhile department of telecom.

and, of course, they continue to buy warm beer sold monopolistically by a cold woman (their chief minister). they do not see that this is a monopoly-cum-monopsony: dikshit is also a monopoly buyer of alcohol.

that is: the sum total of government accumulation and abuse of economic power in delhi is astronomical. there is little hope for such a city.

it might be a better idea to develop entirely new cities as greenfield projects in the private sector, preferably on the west coast, where there is lots of land and the weather is also good. with free trade, these coastal cities will prosper far more than a land-locked one like delhi ever could.

i shifted out of the capital of socialist india some time back. i now live happily on the west coast.

you claim that private developers can solve all the problems. Gurgaon for starters has been laid out by private developers only, the quality of living there is not exactly an example for the rest of the world.

A lot of unauthorized colonies in Delhi are also the result of private developers. Though, it must be acknowledged the reason for that is DDA and its vice like grip on the land.

Also, what should be done about areas like Karol Bagh now? Any suggestions?

Just another thought, even with these regulations a lot of illegal factories had sprung up all over Delhi. I assume in this utopia of no zoning regulations, you can built whatever you want… including a polluting industry as my neighbor?

I dare suggest you look back to the history of regulations and it might hold some interesting facts for you e.g in automobile industry.

my main point is that there is enough land in the NCR to develop if roads, rail and trams are laid out - mainly by private transport entrepreneurs in league with land developers and builders and the private real estate industry. if they are left free of all zoning and other rules paid down by the ‘authorities’ that destroyed delhi, many new areas will come up where these problems will be solved.

chandni chowk, karol bagh and even connaught place have declined as shopping areas because of faulty ‘urban planning’.

do read the mises institute article on ‘zoning as theft’ blogged here by yazad above.

I suggest you take a trip to markets like Karol Bagh in Delhi and see how many shopping complexes have come up in narrow lanes. It takes about an hour to find parking in Karol Bagh. There are many such markets in Delhi-Defence colony, Kamla nagar to cite just two more. In every city in India, you will find such examples.

You talk about footfalls, shopping in India is still royalty driven. My mom will shop where she has always shopped-and a lot of other moms. Otherwise Karol Baghs would have long been obliterated. Pray, why Chandini Chowk exists?

Let me ask you a very simple question-even in the so called broad roads, no problem is being created because of shops ? Aurbindo road after AIIMS is a case in point(Green park market). Just try driving through that area during peak hours and you will know what I mean.

‘’No Zoning regulations'’ assume that each and every person would be benefited by the same thing, which is not usually the case.

In response to gated communities, how many people can afford to live in them?