The Ministry of Urban Development has told the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to immediately put on hold the process of regularisation of farmhouses until amendments to the regularising policy are notified with the approval of the competent authority. In response to a question on the status of farmhouses in the national Capital, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that amendments to the low Density Residential Area (lDRA) provisions under the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 (MPD) and regulation of existing farmhouses have been processed by the DDA. They have now been forwarded to the Urban Development Ministry for consideration.
The DDA has said that villages containing existing farmhouses have been notified as lDRAs and the policy for this has already been put in place. Now the Centre has to act on it.
According to Ahir, the North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations have informed the Government that no new permission for construction of farmhouses has been granted after the gazette notification of the DDA regarding lDRAs.
“The East Delhi Municipal Corporation has informed that there are no farmhouses in its jurisdiction,” Ahir said.
At present, only regularized farmhouses can benefit from the lDRA scheme. There are 4,000 farmhouses in the national Capital.
Sources said that the Urban Development Ministry was yet to notify the amendments, that is why it has stopped the regularisation process of farmhouses in the city.
The DDA notified a new farmhouse policy in June 2013 which applies to 70 villages, of which 47 are in green belts and 23 in rural areas like Chhatarpur, Gadaipur, Rajokri, Bijwasan, Chhawla, Khanpur and Ghumanheda. Till date, no plan has been sanctioned under it. While the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) in lutyens’ Delhi is 15, it is 30 in lDRA areas with three dwelling units on a one-acre plot. Norms for setback and road width have also been relaxed.
The concept of farmhouses or country homes came up in the 1960’s. As the farmhouses were very limited then, there were no building laws and guidelines for them. It was only in the 1980s that a trend started in South Delhi where farmhouses became first homes instead of just holiday homes.