Gujarat High Court raps govt for failure to allot land to differently abled

Source: dnaindia.com

The Gujarat High Court has criticised the state government for its failure to allot land to 62 differently able persons, who have been waiting for the same since 2009, without any fault on their part. The court remarked the same as “unfortunate” and said the government inaction on the allotment of plots has defeated the objective of the Disability Act as well the policy framed by it in this regard.

The single judge bench of Justice VM Pancholi also directed the government to consider the individual applications made by the 62 petitioners for plot within a period of three months. It held that the insistence of the authorities for layout plans from applicants is “misconceived”.

As per the case details, the state government framed a policy and passed a resolution in 2001 for allotment of government land at concessional rate without holding an auction to persons with disabilities. The same was as per section 43 of the Disability Act which provides for preferential allotment of land to differently able for certain purposes.

Based on the resolution, the petitioners and other similarly situated persons made applications for allotment of land in Jamnagar. The applications were processed and the district valuation committee ascertained the market price of the land to be Rs 560 per sqm, which the applicants agreed to pay. The concerned state authority asked for layout plan for the plot sanctioned by Jamnagar Area Development Authority, which was made available.

However, an objection was raised that the layout plan was for 205 plots, whereas there were only 182 applicants. The applicants were also asked to provide margins, construction of road, sewage, etc, in a fresh layout plan, against which they moved court.

The petitioners contended before court that as per the GR, they are not supposed to submit layout plan.