In this article the author shows his concern towards the new law passed, which enables land pooling, which is more or less about the profits rather than the claimed development. In a report by McKinsey Global Institute it was stated that for India to catch up their pace of developed countries, it must expand its metro cities at least by three times. So, this report instigated the need of urban-industrial corridors linking our metros for the development. the first of these corridors link Delhi and Mumbai by a 1500 km long and 300 km wide zone. Though a severely dry zone, it is expected that one-third of the total population will move into this corridor. Regardless of high risks of water scarcity, Cabinet has cleared a $90 billion dollar budget for the corridor.
Land pooling is a project to increase the density of metro areas. This happens by assembling small farmer plots and urbanise this whole lot. As compensation the public authorities keep 15-30% of assembled land parcel and the rest of the land is fully urbanised and is returned to the owner farmers with new title lots.
Slum lands are auctioned to the largest builders in the city. In the mean time while the project goes on, the slum dwellers will be rehabilitated in distant transit camps. The builder will build three kinds of blocks of the whole land. First being the flats for the private clients, second the shopping malls and third the densely packed multi-storey blocks to accommodate slum inhabitants. This way the slum-dwellers also benefit and the builders too. But in an attempt of urban development the Ministry is harvesting riches for the big players and builders. And in attempt of finding a business solution here, the Ministry is forgetting its purpose of sustainable development and is turning away from the issue of future water demands.
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