The Government of Maharashtra ends its ownership of ULC surplus lands.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

Under the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act, the state government has ended its ownership of land defined as excess. This will be a significant relief for landowners, plots and tenements that have come on these surplus lands.

On 16 September the State Department of Urban Development issued a notice to the collectors and competent authority of the ULC departments of all state districts to remove the state government name from surplus land documents and replace it by “surplus area in accordance with ULC section 20”.

The judgment was passed by orders of the Supreme Court and suggestion of BN Shreekrishna and BN Makhija two-member committee.

Previously, under the ULC Act, the government declared surplus land to be as government property. Under the Talegaon Dabhade scheme, the government used to return surplus land to owners under certain circumstances for the developing residential, industrial and other structures.

A certain proportion of land, which varied between 10-20%, would be owned by the government. The rest was to be in the name of landowners, which were supposed to pass ownership to owners of plots or tenements. But in the ownership records of such surplus land, the Government had registered its name.

The government will also be likely, to exempt landowners from developing approved schemes under the Talegaon Dabhade scheme and providing them certain share to it by taking premium.