Relaxed rules for taking back state-owned plots of land awarded to citizens have been included in the land bill submitted to Parliament by the government.
Four rules or processes for seizing state-owned land awarded for housing were included in the bill. The most concerning rule involves the failure of the recipient of the plot to start living in the plot within five years.
The existing Land Act also includes a provision for withdrawing plots if there is no inhabited residence within five years. However, the provision currently in force does not require the recipient of the plot to live there.
The new land law proposed by the government states that the recipient must personally start living in a house built on the plot within five years. The other provision that is not in the current law is a process for taking back plots found to have been secured fraudulently.
Rules for taking back state-owned land
- Person who registered the plot not starting to live in the plot within five years from the date that the plot is awarded
- Violating a condition for awarding plots or a condition imposed before the awarding
- Recipient of the plot repeatedly violating this law
- It is proven at court that the plot had been obtained fraudulently or through deception
Rules for taking back state-owned land under existing law
- Failure to reside in the plot within five years after it is awarded
- Recipient of state-owned land repeatedly violating the law or a condition imposed when the plot was awarded
During the debate on the government’s bill at Monday’s sitting of Parliament, some MPs criticized the rule for the state to take back plots of land if the recipients fail to take up residence within five years.
Hanimaadhoo MP Abdul Ghafoor Moosa said it would be unfair to seize plots without facilitating home construction or establishing essential services on the islands.
“When we pass a bill today to seize the people’s plots, we should know clearly why people are not living in that plot. That is not the people’s problem. It should only be after completing that service, that opportunity, that prosperity, that bank loan and all such things that the citizen should be told when there’s no citizen living there, that the plot would be taken back if there’s no residence within five years,” Ghafoor said.
