In response to a recent blog of mine about unregulated construction in Himachal, a discerning reader commented that he had done an online search for available properties in the state and, to his horror, found that 23,450 properties were advertised for sale/rent/lease between just Shimla and Narkanda, a stretch of around 90 km.

Even allowing for double counting, these figures tell a tale which our policymakers would do well to listen to, and heed. For what they tell us is that faulty policies, lack of vision or an inadequate understanding of economics are making Himachal prime real estate, up for grabs by whoever has the money and connections to exploit the system.

But some background first.

Land is a precious commodity in Himachal, for the utilisable land is less than 15 per cent of its geographical area — 8 lakh hectares against a total of 55.67 lakh hectares, the rest being forests, 'gair mumkin' or areas above the tree line where nothing grows. The actual area under agriculture is even less — just about 5.25 lakh hectares.

Farming is almost at subsistence level. The average landholding is 0.94 hectares (in Punjab it is 3.64 hectares), and small and marginal farmers hold 89 per cent of the arable land. Industry is almost non-existent and the state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

For all these reasons, as Nirmanyu Chauhan and Divyanshu Thakur put it so eloquently in their article in The Wire (8 March), land in this state is not just a commodity; it is a source of dignity, livelihood and autonomy. And security.

Himachal's first chief minister Y.S. Parmar had the vision to realise this and therefore took steps to ensure that Himachalis were not deprived of........

© National Herald