In a bid to check land scams, prime minister Manmohan Singh has proposed that sale or lease of government land should only be made with the union cabinet's approval - or at least with clearance from the cabinet committee on infrastructure.

The new drill has been brought into force with immediate effect, pending formulation of a comprehensive land transfer policy to regulate and bring transparency in the sale or lease of land belonging to the centre or any of its agencies.

Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar has constituted a committee of secretaries to immediately prepare a draft policy for submitting it to the cabinet for its approval.  He has asked the department of economic affairs to submit a note in this regard.

Pending formulation of the policy, Chandrasekhar has written to heads of all ministries, departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) to forward each and every proposal for selling or leasing out of government land to the cabinet secretariat for securing approval.

The directive takes away the discretionary powers enjoyed by the bureaucrats to favour private parties with allotment of land at the throwaway price. It will also prevent the quiet transfers of land as what happened with the defence land for construction of the high-rise residential building of Adarsh Society in Mumbai.

Sources said the PM has also asked the cabinet secretary to examine the practice followed since independence of giving land on long lease of 99 years which is as good as permanent transfer of the land ownership.

The Indian railways and the defence ministry have large tracts of land at strategic locations that the realtors always try to grab and hence the PM wants a policy which bans any transfer of such public assets to individuals or private groups.