'New land pooling policy will deprive people of affordable housing'
New Delhi, June 21: A housing society group on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure implementation of earlier approved Land Pooling Policy, as the new policy will deprive people of affordable housing in some parts of the national capital, and also warned of an agitation if this was not done.
The Federation of Housing Societies and Developers in Delhi (FEDHSDD), which held a day-long protest at the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) office, also wrote to Modi demanding immediate rollback of modified land pooling policy as it will "increase the cost of homes by 40-50 per cent and affect more than 40,000 people who have invested under the policy".
"This sudden spike in rates is because the DDA, in its modified policy, has brought down the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 400 to 180. This change defeats the main purpose of affordable housing and will lead to the growth of unauthorized colonies in Delhi," FEDHSDD Secretary Satish Aggarwal told the media here.
"We will go to the Prime Minister's office and go on a hunger strike if our demands are not met," he said.
Aggarwal has also alleged that the DDA has taken a "U-turn" on their 2013 land pooling policy notification and arbitrarily modified the policy to benefit large developers and builders by reducing FARs, making one-time payment of External Development Charges (EDC) mandatory and by making provision of consortium necessary.
According to the newly-proposed modification, he claimed that "a few private developers will take over the role of DDA as a consolidator and facilitator".
"It is a nexus between DDA and big builders to deprive cooperative housing societies to get affordable homes. In a very haphazard and arbitrary manner, DDA has tried to skirt all its responsibilities. It is a ploy to kill cooperative housing movement to favour big builders. We will not allow this to happen," Aggarwal said.
He also pointed out that the earlier policy would have provided at least 25 lakh affordable homes to people including 50,000 homes to people in the economically weaker section (EWS) category.
"The people of Delhi have invested approximately Rs 35,000 crore in it. Previously, all the stakeholders and farmers were satisfied with the provisions but now, from where will we manage the extra money," he said.
The Federation, with thousands of its members and farmers, are planning to hold a big protest to pressurize DDA to revert its decision.
"Farmers who have sold their land in the proposed zone in north Delhi are up in arms against DDA and have threatened to launch a big protest. The Federation has given several letters to the DDA Vice Chairman and has also written to Prime Minister Modi to resolve the issue, but the government has failed to listen to our suggestions," Aggarwal said.
Meanwhile, DDA on Wednesday said that a public hearing on the land pooling policy will be conducted on July 2 and 3.
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Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
