MUDA guidelines now friendly for land owners

Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) has formed guidelines that will encourage landowners, to partner in the development of residential areas, to meet the demands of the applicants for sites in Mysuru.

Addressing a media conference here, on Thursday, Chairman of MUDA H V Rajeev said, "There are 80,000 applications pending for sites. Landowners have come forward to enter into a 50:50 ratio partnership, with a total of 700 acres, at present."

"MUDA has the ability to develop layouts on up to 4,000 acres of land, to meet the residential demands of the citizens. But, among the applicants, some have seniority of up to six attempts. Over this period of time, some of them would not need MUDA sites, now. Thus, we plan to link the applications with Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number (PAN),” he said.

Rajeev said that once MUDA enters into an agreement with a landowner, Rs 5 lakh was paid per acre, earlier, to meet their immediate needs. Now, it is increased to Rs 10 lakh per acre.

"Besides, once the agreement of a particular block is over, a deadline of 18 months is set, for the development and handing over of the 50% share of sites to the landowners. It is left to the discretion of the landowners, to either keep or surrender their share of the sites. As the joint-venture of MUDA with landowners is on consent and agreement, unlike notification and acquisition earlier, legal hassles will reduce," he added.

“The objective of MUDA is to provide affordable sites to citizens and also to ensure that the landowners are not cheated. We plan a two-pronged approach to meet the demands of aspirants for sites and houses. Besides layouts, we plan to build high-rise apartment buildings. We are also taking possession of MUDA lands and buildings, which have been illegally encroached upon, and will put them to good use. MUDA is recruiting five surveyors to speed up the work. We have also formed teams, to coordinate with landowners.”

“We have sent a proposal to the government to have MUDA squad with the police officials to tackle encroachment, cheating, and fraud cases. We have already blacklisted 26 developers in the wake of irregularities. Such action need to be taken on a war-footing, in the interest of the citizens,” he said.