Land Development Ordinance to be amended

Thursday, 16 November 2017 01:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Skandha Gunasekara

The Cabinet of Ministers has given its approval to amend the Land Development Ordinance to change the methods of preparing a new grant and revising available conditions.

Minister of Lands and Parliamentary reforms and Co-cabinet spokesman Gayantha Karunathilaka presented the proposal to Cabinet.

According to the Cabinet paper, several new methods have been proposed as amendments to the ordinance, such as not requiring the approval of the Government agent in disposing of a holding within the family itself.

The approval of the “Government Agent shall not be required for mortgaging a permit to financial institutions approved by the Central bank nor for the leasing of a permit of a land for a period of one year.”

It has also been suggested that “a land that has not been surveyed shall not be alienated by a grant and that land alienated on any grant shall be described with reference to a plan prepared by or under the authority of the Surveyor General and kept in his discharge,”

The amendment also includes a provision where “it could be allowed to use the grant issued for residential purposes, under the Land Development Ordinance, even for other purposes – as other purposes, there shall be the right to cultivate the land by the permit holder and to carry on the self-employment or equal economic activities in the building built/has built on his/her own financial contribution upon concurrence with the relevant Local Authority and other institutions concerning the subject.”

With the regard to the ‘successor’ of a land/lands, the amendment states that “in a case where a permit holder is dead with nominating the succession, make provisions to devolve succession, in terms of the civil governing upon the permit holder” and to substitute the word ‘family’ and replace it with spouse, children, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandson, granddaughter, parents, brothers and sisters.

While amendments to this ordinance have been proposed and formulated since the late 1930s, the most recent, drafted in 2008, were put before the provincial councils for review, in accordance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but its progress was brought to a halt due to the objections of provincial councils at the time.

The Minister notes that the current draft of the amendment has taken into account all proposals and objections made by the provincial council during the last occasion.