Re: [mpisgmedia] whos is preparing the toolkits for NURM ?

This mail demonstrates that the important functionaries in India have a one sided view - this is what I can say from my little experience.

Regarding land administration there is enough system in place but it is not implemented. Encouraging effective landmanagment will be the appropriate thing but no one in this august meeting seems to have a clue.

It will be useful if professionals who have worked in the field will react to the mail. That is totally missing in this high level meeting.
Nalini Thakur

Nidhi Jamwal <nidhi@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 5. Well-functioning, efficient and equitable urban land markets
> [World
> Bank]......

WB taking keen interest in land administration.... Its latest press release..


New Delhi January 6, 2006: Inefficient land administration and
restrictions on
operation of land markets are key impediments to faster growth and more
effective poverty reduction in the country and cuts down annual GDP growth by
1.3%. These findings were shared at a conference on ?Land Policies &
Administration for Accelerated Growth and Poverty Reduction? organized
jointly
by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the World Bank. The
conference,
which brought together leading experts, government officials, and civil
society
representatives from across the country, discussed how land policy and
administration can be made more effective to foster growth and reduce
poverty.

Policy makers, scholars, and representatives of civil society agreed that
improving land administration in the country is a top priority. For the first
time, a number of states have started vigorously addressing these issues and
that expanding these successful models, and replicating them in other states,
offers a real hope to tackle this agenda.

In his inaugural address, the Union Minister of Rural Development, R. P.
Singh
emphasized that land administration and land reform had long constituted two
central pillars of MoRD?s agenda. ?We can not hope to address poverty in this
country without dealing with land?.

Presentations on innovations by various states showed that a promising
start is
being made in tackling the land administration agenda. Extending his support,
Mr. Michael Carter, Country Director, The World Bank, India, said, ?The
examples
presented here amply demonstrate that India has the technical capacity and,
increasingly, the political will to improve its land tenure system and we
will
be ready to assist in this important task in whatever way the Government
deems
appropriate?.

While the economic benefits from improved land administration will be
substantial, participants pointed out that non-economic benefits from
strengthening India?s land administration infrastructure may be even more
significant. These include empowerment of women, improved governance and
transparency, and dignity of rural dwellers, especially in marginal and
tribal
areas.

Prof. D.C. Wadhwa from Ghokale Institute in Pune highlighted the sorry
state of
land records in India as chairman of a 1989 man commission on land
administration, appointed by M. Singh, then chairman of the Planning
Commission.
?There are few things that will be as beneficial to social and economic
development, including improved transparency and accountability, as
getting the
land records and registration in order? he said in a statement that was
widely
shared by the audience.

The Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, in an evaluation of Karnataka?s
?Bhoomi?
project that involved replacement of 20 million manual land records by
computerized ones, found that doing so saved users Rs. 800 million of
unofficial
fees and 1.3 mn days of waiting time which they could instead use for more
productive pursuits. ?We are using Bhoomi as the first step towards a full
integration between records and registration that will go a long way in
improving tenure security in the country? says Mr. S.M. Jaamdar Principal
Secretary Revenue from Karnataka..

With other states, such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Andhra
Pradesh
following this example, participants agreed that close monitoring and
dissemination of different states? experiences will allow other states to
design
pilots, initially on a very small scale, to establish efficient and
field-proven
procedures to formalize rights. Participants agreed that in most
situations an
incremental approach that builds on existing data and capacity will have a
better chance of success -and of making an impact on the poor- than costly
and
sophisticated technology that will only cover a few.

By extending connectivity to the village level at a massive scale, the
National
e-governance program offers considerable opportunities to increase
transparency
of land records. Improving the quality of land records and registration is
one
of the sub-projects of the National e-governance plan that aims to make
government services available locally, in an efficient, reliable, and
transparent manner, to the poor. National institutions, including the
Ministry
of IT under its e-governance plan, will provide technical and financial
support
to states to modernize their land administration systems and ensure that
secure
land ownership no longer remains beyond the reach of the common man.

The potential impact of support to land access for poor was illustrated in a
presentation by Mr. K. Raju, Principal Secretary Rural Development from
Andhra
Pradesh, where legal assistance, together with efforts to make the revenue
machinery more pro-poor, have helped to spur a new wave of land reform
that has
thus transferred more than 3 lakh acres of land to the poor, with all pattas
issued in the name of women, in the past year. ?Two areas where more is
possible
are land leasing and tribal lands?, he said. In particular, a land
commission,
established to explore avenues of transferring more land to the poor, found
that, with 100% of tenancy being informal, liberalization of the land lease
market could provide tremendous benefits for the poor.

An all-India study presented at the conference similarly concludes that,
while
land reform laws had a very positive impact on growth and poverty reduction,
they are no longer very effective in helping to promote land access. ?Our
results show unambiguously that land rental increases the well-being of the
poor. Tenancy laws that restrict the operation of these markets make it more
difficult for the poor to access land and freeing up rental in a way that
does
not jeopardize sitting tenants would have considerable benefits? says H.K.
Nagarajan from NCAER, a co-author of the study.

The workshop noted that the Tribal Lands Bill, currently tabled in
Parliament,
will have far-reaching impacts on land access and management by the poorest
sections in the population. Still, there was agreement that much needs to be
done to effectively implement existing legislation, in particular the
Panchayat
Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA). ?Any effort to improve land
administration will need to learn from states that have started to
effectively
implement this Act in the interests of the poor? says S. Upadhyay, a
lawyer who
has been closely followed both pieces of legislations.

Dr. T. Haque from CACP, who took a major role in organizing the workshop
emphasized that a strong presence of members by the planning commission and
other think tanks suggests that the workshop could provide an input into the
formulating of the 11th plan. The importance of the in-depth discussion of
land
policy and administration issues at the workshop was highlighted by
representatives of the World Bank, FAO, and DfID supporting the event.

> It seems Policy guidance notes were prepared by the following in
> which the last is the only CSO invited by the ministry in New Delhi;
> 1. Modern, transparent, budgeting, accounting and financial
> management
> systems across city functions [USAID]
> 2. Citywide framework for planning and governance [NIPFP] CDP
> 3. All residents obtain access to basic services. [W. S. P-SA]
> 4. Financially self-sustainable cities [USAID Fire-D]
> 5. Well-functioning, efficient and equitable urban land markets
> [World
> Bank]
> 6. Transparent, accountable, governance and service delivery
> [Janaagraha]
> in addition WSP SA is also preparing a Model Concession Agreement for
> Water
> Supply in all cities covered under NURM
> _______________________________________________
> mpisgmedia mailing list
> http://mail.architexturez.net/mailman/listinfo/mpisgmedia + Planning
> collaborative at http://plan.architexturez.org/
>


Nidhi Jamwal
Correspondent
DOWN TO EARTH
705, Panorama Tower
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Mumbai 400058
India
Mobile: +91-9867213234
Email: nidhi@xxxxxxxxxxxx, nidhijamwal@xxxxxxxxx
Website: www.downtoearth.org.in
www.cseindia.org

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Re: [mpisgmedia] whos is preparing the toolkits for NURM ?, Nidhi Jamwal
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