Farm Houses in Noida

Farm Houses in Noida www.infralive.com 21 InfraLIVE September 15, 2022 this context the SRP-2021 (Sub- Regional Plan) provided that all ac t i v i t i es in the cont rol l ed/ development area will be permitted as per the provisions of Zoning Regulations of notified Master Plan. The activities permitted under agricultural use in NOIDA Master Plan 2021 were dairy farm, farm house, milk chilling centres, primary school, orchard, wireless centre, plant nursery, forest, rural centre. Thus, the hierarchy of planning structure permitted the above activities in agricultural areas which included farm houses and which were to be performed outside the inhabited areas. th NOIDA Authority in its 157 Board meeting held on December 23, 2008 approved a proposal for developing farm houses on the basis of the following justifications: NOIDA and GoUP had approved the land marked adjacent to the embankment of Yamuna and Hindon rivers as agriculture areas in the approved Master Plan 2021, keeping in consideration the environmental aspect. In the same meeting, the Board of NOIDA also approved a proposal for develop- ment of agricultural areas detailing the end uses and development norms like FAR, ground coverage (GC), height of building, etc. Based on NOIDA's proposal, GoUP a p p r o v e d ( F e b r u a r y 2009 ) amendment to Building Regula- tions whereby norms for farm houseswere provided. CAG Comp t r o l l e r and Aud i t o r Genera l of Indi a (CAG) had conducted its first independent audit on the functioning of the Noida Authority and published a report. It found that the Noida Authority allotted 181 plots of Farm Houses of over 10,000 sqm each aggregating 1,837,340 sqm during 2009-2014, in prime sectors of Noida at one-fifth of market rates in an arbitrary manner. The allocation has been done mostly to big business houses, large real es tat e deve l opers/ bui lders , prominent lawyers, individuals and their family members without following any transparent bidding process under schemes which did not have any objective criterion. Several companies, their directors, family members etc cornered multiple plots at throwaway prices based on the recommendations of a Plot Allotment Committee (PAC) handpicked by the Noida Author- ity. Here are the facts. Details The Mayawati government had acquired agricultural land in seven villages along the Noida-Greater Noida expressway and put them on sale under the Open Ended Scheme (OES) for Development of Farm Houses onAgricultural Land (OES- V) 2008-09. Thereafter, another scheme OES 2010 for the same purpose was launched. The scheme was launched citing encroachment on agricultural land, but there were no records of encroachment. However, both the schemes offered plots across Noida to the applicants without elaborating any detailed a plot, is appearing for the peti- tioner in thismatter. Many had filed complaints with the State Government, which orde r ed an i nqu i ry through Lokayukta (Justice NK Mehrotra). The Lokayukta also issued public notices on July 5 & 8, 2013. In its report submitted on November 11, 2013, surprisingly the Lokayukta found no evidence of corruption. In this regard, the high court while referring the matter for PIL, had observed, “This much is also reflected from the record in question that large scale com- plaints have been made before the Lokayukta but at no point of time anything concrete came out of them and it appears that every- thing has been swept under the carpet so that the capricious manner in which the land of poor farmers, that has been taken away and handed over to rich and affluent persons, is not at all exposed.” Background On January 2, 1992, the Govern- ment of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) notified NOIDA (Agriculture Use Zone) Area Regulations, 1991 wherein the concept of farm house was formally defined for NOIDA. It provided that farm house means a plot of land in the area demarcated for agriculture use by NOIDA. The Regional Plan (RP)-2021 zoning regulations permitted establish- ment of farm houses outside abadi (inhabited) area under Agriculture (Rural) Zone within Controlled/ Development/ Regulated Areas. In Table-1: Loss to UP Govt due to fixing lower charges for Farm Houses compar ed to Basic Rates Sl Year of allotment No. of allotments Total Area allotted (sqm) Allotment rate (Rs/Sqm) Basic rate (Rs/Sqm) Differential rates less realised Total amount less realised (Rs cr) A B C D E F=E-D G=CxF 1 2008-09 22 2,28,965 3,100 15,914 12,814 293.40 2 2009-10 42 5,82,836 3,100 16,996 13,896 809.91 3 2010-11 83 9,25,264 3,500 17,556 14,056 1,300.55 4 2011-12 5 50,200 3,940 19,770 15,830 79.47 5 2014-15 5 50,075 5,525 37,928 32,403 162.26 Total 157 18,37,340 Avg 3,390 2,645.58 Location Charges less realised on above allotments 187.60 Total less realised including location charges 2,833.18