Govt mulls legal stamp on Salt Lake plot sale

Suman Chakraborti TNN 

Sale of leasehold residential property in Salt Lake is going to be legalized soon. 

    The Mamata Banerjee government plans to allow transfer of lease in the township for a fee. Most of the land in Salt Lake belongs to the urban development department and the government will fix the fee. 

    The state Cabinet meeting is likely to discuss the proposal on Tuesday. Salt Lake residents had been waiting for this for a long time. 

    If things go according to plan, plot-holders in Salt Lake can legally monetize their property by paying the government stamp duty, registration fees or some other levy. 

    “Leasehold land won’t turn into freehold land. We are mulling allowing transfer of lease but only with the permission of the government,” urban development minister Firhad Hakim said. 

    The government will continue to enjoy ownership rights and also earn revenue that it had missed out on earlier when property changed hands in Salt Lake under cover. 

    The Bidhannagar Municipality could never stop the under hand deals unless the original lessee walked up to register a formal complaint. 

    The proposal was doing the rounds since the days of the Left Front government but was allowed only for commercial properties. A case is pending in the court over the change of a commercial property into a residential highrise in HB block.Govt to fix lease fee per cottah 

    Once the proposal to legalise the sale of residential plots in Salt Lake gets through in the state Cabinet on Tuesday, the government will evaluate the plots in the township and fix a price for the transfer of lease per cottah. 

    Illegal sale of plots in Salt Lake caught the notice of the Mamata Banerjee government soon after the Trinamool Congress came to power in May, 2011. The government has been trying to find a way out since then. 

    Plots in Salt Lake were leased for a 999-year tenure in the 1970s to enable middleclass people to settle in the township on the condition that the leaseholders cannot transfer their plots. 

    According to the present rules, residential plots cannot be sold or transferred as the plot holders are actually lease holders and not owners. But later, some genuine problems cropped up. 

    The family increased at least by two-fold within a span of 50 years and the lessee could not do justice to all his/her children, because leasehold property can’t be partitioned and distributed among the heirs. 

    This prompted some to sell out the property illegally for a huge amount of money. According to estimates, out of the 12,000 plots in the township, almost 35% of the plots have been transferred or sold illegally. Plots measuring a cottah, which were originally leased out for about Rs 5,000, have been sold illegally for lakhs, say sources. Many such transfers are in the process with the help of touts and many houses have been illegally sold more than once.

FROM THE CORE OF THE HEART

Nabadiganta’s chief SA Ahmed is going whole hog to step up the infrastructure at Sector V

In 2006, West Bengal government had segregated Salt Lake Sector V from Bidhannagar Municipality and had formed Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) for better management of infrastructure and other related activities there. The government has formed a 14-member committee which comprises representatives of the state IT department, KMDA, urban development and IT companies for running NDITA. In a freewheeling interview with ET’s Sutanuka Ghosal NDITA chairman SA Ahmed unveils the initiatives that the authority plans to undertake to improve the quality of infrastructure at Sector V. Excerpts:
How many units are now working at Salt Lake Sector V?
There are 603 units working at Salt Lake Sector V, which are spread over an area of 432 acres. Of these 603 units, 250 are IT facilities, both big and small. There are manufacturing units embracing Videocon, Areva and Godrej at Sector V as well. These 603 units also include schools, colleges and healthcare facilities that have come up in the area. Sector V has generated 70,000 direct jobs and an additional 30,000 indirect jobs over the years.
What is the role of NDITA in improving the infrastructure of Sector V?
    NDITA’s role is to provide modern infrastructure at the Sector V which includes roads, bridges, a water supply network, developing underground sewer lines and a drainage system. We have opted for a public-private partnership model for developing infrastructure at Sector V. Along with this, we are also involved in the traffic movement in the area. Apart from our usual exercise of maintaining infrastructure at Sector V, we are also responsible for collecting taxes, renewing trade licences and assessing property taxes.
IT companies, time-and-again, have complained about the poor internal infrastructure and water supply linkages at Sector V. What steps are you taking to address these twin issues?
    We are adopting a multi-pronged approach to address these issues. One should always remember that Sector V was set up initially for SSI units. No one had ever thought that it would turn out to be the IT hub of West Bengal. Therefore, the internal infrastructure, particularly roads, are not so broad as one can find in places like Bangalore or Hyderabad. To ease traffic movement in the area, we have come up with a new flyover near the Wipro building. Two new bridges have come up to help easy movement of cars from Kolkata to the airport and from Salt Lake to other parts of Kolkata. We are also in the process of appointing a consultant to suggest ways of managing the internal traffic, which is constantly increasing. We are also planning to introduce a one-way traffic system within the Sector V area to ease the movement of cars. We know that laying of water supply lines by Jusco, a Tata Group company, has compounded the road problem in Sector V. Jusco is slated to complete their work within March 31, 2010 and we are hopeful that traffic movement will become smoother after that. You will be surprised to know that some 8,000 vehicles ply in Sector V everyday, which include cars hired by IT companies like TCS, Wipro, IBM and others. If there are further problems, we are always open to the idea of discussing with the IT companies to sort them out.
Waterlogging and illegal parking are two major problems faced by the companies working at Sector V. How do you plan to curb these problems?
    Till last year, waterlogging had remained a problem. But not any more. We have taken adequate measures to prevent waterlogging at Sector V. From 2010, there will be no waterlogging at Salt Lake. Illegal parking is another problem area, where we are taking tough measures. If we find any cars parked illegally, we will tow away the car immediately. We have urged the Sector V units to create more parking space within their office premises, so that employees can park their vehicles there. We have come up with five parking lots in Sector V which can accommodate some 1,800-2,000 cars.
Barring a few big retail food chains, Sector V lacks good eateries that can provide quality food at affordable prices. Are you taking any initiative to address this?
    Unauthorised eateries have mushroomed in the sector along the roadside. We have decided to replace them with food kiosks which will provide affordable and quality food. We have allocated some 92 food kiosks in the area. KMDA is also planning to come up with a food park, where small eateries will come up.
Security at Sector V is probably a matter of concern to you as it also employs a large number of women. How are you addressing this issue?
    Unlike Bangalore, Sector V has not witnessed any major security problem. We are taking adequate steps to address this crucial issue. We have asked the IT companies to step up security arrangements at their premises. From our end, we have posted two patrolling vehicles, which move around Sector V on a 24x7 basis. Moreover, we have put up a surveillance system at NDITA, which is connected with the Bidhannagar (east) police station, so that we can keep a constant watch to avoid any untoward incident