In Ujjain, a familiar plot, a disturbing abdication

India is witnessing a welcome spurt in urban public infrastructure investment, with land the centrepiece of these projects. Land use decisions are the most consequential — and most corruptible — instruments of urban governance. What gets designated “residential”? Which agricultural land turns “commercial”? Which highway corridor gets sanctioned first? Who shapes or reshapes the master plan? Knowledge of which way the state is likely to tilt, either in allocating funds or changing land use, has deepened information asymmetry in land markets, benefitting a few. An investigation in this paper has shone a light on such transactions in Ujjain. The buck, quite literally, stops at the door of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

The investigation has revealed that since he took oath in December 2023, Chief Minister Yadav’s family and their real-estate firms have bought at least 137 plots of land totalling up to 168 acres. These plots have been bought in areas that have benefitted from the government’s infrastructure push. For instance, a significant share of these are in the vicinity of new road projects announced in or around Ujjain. The Yadav family owns land in virtually every zone that has been demarcated for change of land use — as per the Ujjain Master Plan 2035, from agriculture to residential. This is a disturbing pattern, it smacks of cronyism.

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In Ujjain, or in any city, permits, licences or approvals needed for construction work have to be obtained from arms of the state government. When individuals or firms connected to the Chief Minister are involved in real-estate transactions, these are easier to come by. Politics distorts the economics of the market when lines are crossed and due process sidestepped, when compliance is given short shrift. The consequences ripple through the city, and the system. Dots can be connected, for example, from the building that collapsed in Saidulajab and the bed and breakfast that caught fire in Hauz Rani recently to the clear disregard for propriety and norms in land acquisition uncovered in Ujjain. The blurring of lines between Mohan Yadav and his family, the politician-in-power and the builder network, and an erosion of checks and balances cast a lengthening shadow on Ujjain’s urban governance. Transparency must be brought into the process of land acquisition, the abuse of the state’s discretionary power must be curtailed. For the BJP’s “good governance” mantra to mean anything, those in power need stronger guardrails. The party leadership must ask the Chief Minister to explain his family’s growing land bank. Calling this business as usual will not wash.