Land pooling
Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Land pooling is a way to get land for planned development, such as a new town or an expanded city. Many landowners hand their plots to a development authority, which puts them together into one large area. The authority builds roads, drains, water lines and parks on part of the land. Each owner then gets back a smaller plot than they gave, but it is serviced (it now has these facilities) and is usually worth more. Owners keep a stake in the land instead of losing it for cash. This makes the method less disruptive and often less contested than compulsory acquisition, where the government takes land by law.
Example
Andhra Pradesh used land pooling to gather farmland for its new capital, Amaravati. Farmers gave up their fields and were promised developed residential and commercial plots in the new city in return. Gujarat's town planning schemes and Delhi's land pooling policy also work on this idea.
Don't confuse with
- Consolidation of land holdings (chakbandi): a farmer's scattered plots are exchanged and merged into one or a few compact blocks for farming. The farmer gives up no land for roads or other public use.
- Land acquisition: the state takes land compulsorily and pays compensation. The owner loses the land completely and gets no plot back.