This story is from September 13, 2018

Not acquired for 8 years, Hi-tech city land may be denotified

More than eight years after it had earmarked nearly 8,700 acres of land across 18 villages along NH-24 for the development of a Hi-tech township, the government is planning to denotify land that has not yet been acquired by designated developers for the project in Ghaziabad.
Not acquired for 8 years, Hi-tech city land may be denotified
GHAZIABAD: More than eight years after it had earmarked nearly 8,700 acres of land across 18 villages along NH-24 for the development of a Hi-tech township, the government is planning to denotify land that has not yet been acquired by designated developers for the project in Ghaziabad.
Under the Hi-tech Township Policy of 2003, the then Mayawati government had notified 8,686 acres of farm land between 2009 and 2010 for the construction of two lakh residential units to meet the city’s housing demands.
However, the two private developers which won the bid for the project have acquired barely 50% of the notified land till date.
Confirming the development, Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) secretary Santosh Rai told TOI on Wednesday, “The state government has sought from us the details of the project that is being developed under Hi-tech Township Policy. We are in the process of preparing a report.”
“After getting our report, the state government is the one that will take a call on whether to denotify the unacquired land. A meeting is also likely to take place in Lucknow on Thursday. If denotified, farmers will be able to retain ownership of the land and will be free to sell the same to anyone,” he added.
According to another official, the plan, if executed, will give much-needed relief to the farmers whose land has been earmarked for the project more than eight years back as they can’t sell the same to anyone except the two developers under the Hi-tech Township Policy.
“For years, these two developers failed to acquire the entire land notified for the project. While one developer bought 856 of 4,250-acre land that it was supposed to acquire, the other developer managed to buy 3035 of 4436 acres of land it was to acquire,” he added.

Councillor Rajender Tyagi said the government can very well denotify unaquired land. “There is a clause under the Hi-tech Township Policy that if the developer fails to acquire land within five years, the state government can denotify the same,” he said.
Under the policy, a private developer is mandated to develop Hi-tech township equipped with modern amenities conforming to international standard by investing at least Rs 1,000 crore over 1,500 acres of land.
A spokesperson for one of the developers said, “We are ready to acquire the remaining land, but farmers who own the same are creating hurdles.”
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