Thousands of unlicensed colonies have sprung up in the stateof Punjab from last seven to eight years and many people have become sufferersafter the purchase of properties in such colonies. The government stated thatthey along with people were fooled by registering sale deeds of plots in manysuch colonies.
Here is an explainer on how theseillegal colonies have grown across the state and if there is any solution tothe same.
The total number of illegal colonies in Punjab
Sources reveal that the state governmenthas conducted an informal survey in the Punjab Urban Development Authority(PUDA) on the extent of unauthorized colonies around six- seven years ago.Brahm Shanker Jimpa, Punjab Revenue Minister said that an estimate of12,000-13,000 illegal colonies exist in the state of Punjab. “The formal numbercould be less as the departments that are responsible to prevent of suchcolonies keep the count down,” said a senior PUDA officer.
Why are these unauthorized colonies coming up in the state?
The government bodies, includingthe Department of Housing and Urban Development, Improvement Trusts, which havevarious organizations under it such as Greater Ludhiana Area DevelopmentAuthority (GALDA), Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA), BathindaDevelopment Authority (BDA), Amritsar Development Authority (ADA), GreaterMohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Patiala Development Authority (PDA),Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) are developing a small number ofauthorized or licensed colonies against the actual requirement. This comes asan open invitation to the private colonizers who start building illegalcolonies to aid rapid urbanization.
What are these colonies/ who are responsible for it?
Apart from the governmentcolonies, there are many authorized colonies which are carved out by theprivate bodies following all the set norms by the Housing and Urban DevelopmentDepartment.
Illegal, unauthorized orunlicensed colonies are those which are constructed by the private colonizerswithout following any norms of providing basic infrastructure to the plotholders. These developers do not hold any license to sell out the plots but aredoing it illegally. Political leaders who are developing illegal colonies andare pressurizing the government officials for registering sale deeds,government officials who put their money in such colonies should be heldresponsible for this menace. Instead for solving this problem, all the peopleare passing blame onto each other.
Why are sale deeds taking place when the colonies are not licensed?
Under the special schemes in theyear 2013 and 2018, the government tried to facilitate developers and plotholders by trying to regularize these colonies in exchange of certain fee tothee government in the name of basic amenities. However, even after this manydeveloper did not apply for regularization of their colonies and more suchcolonies grew up even after this step was taken. Now, the government hasdecided to demolish these colonies, buildings and has lodges FIRs against suchdevelopers.
Why is NOC required?
The government has now put up acondition that an NOC will be required from a competent authority to sell plotsin any illegal colony. In the corporation limits, NOC is provided by thecommittees’ authority and outside this NOC is provided by Punjab UrbanDevelopment Authority (PUDA), its sister bodies. If PUDA doesn’t exist theAdditional Deputy Commissioner, Urban Development carries out this work.
Guidelines to be followed by registrars and tehsildars/what happens ifsale deed is registered without NOC?
To regularize the unlicensed colonies, the Punjab Apartmentand Property Regulation Act (PAPRA) was enacted by the government of Punjab in1995 after in 2014 an amendment was made. This act states that no registrar orsub-registrar shall register any sale deed, which is not licensed from acompetent authority.
“In 2018, the revenue department issued guidelines that anupdated list of unauthorized colonies will be provided by the department ofHousing & Urban Development and Department of Local Govt with NOC forregistering sale deeds. But the letter was withdrawn in December 2019 sayingthat no requirement of NOC for property registration which was challenged inthe Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2021,” said Sukhcharan Singh Channi,General secretary, Tehsildar Association Punjab, adding to this the FinancialCommissioner Punjab passed a detailed speaking order on 22 November, 2021 incompliance with court order dated 3 August, 2021.
Is there any solution to this problem?
As on one side PUDA and othersister organizations need to develop more authorized colonies to sustain therapidly growing population, on the other side there is need of strong policiesto fight against these illegal constructions.
Ajoy Kumar Sinha, IAS, PrincipalSecretory of Housing and Urban Development in Punjab stated that there are approximately12K-13K illegally constructed colonies out of which 5500 are under PUDA andremaining comes under the corporation.
The state government made apolicy on 19 March 2018 which stated that any building made before this datewhich comply with the guidelines of government should be regularized. A post ofADC, Urban Development has also been created in the cities not having PUDAoffices, so that action can be taken against the illegally constructedcolonies.
The names of all the legally constructed colonies will beput up on the website of Housing and Urban Development of Punjab, so that noperson has to be a victim of this problem again.
Ajoy Kumar Sinha, IAS, PrincipalSecretory of Housing and Urban Development in Punjab said that an FIR will belodged against all those who are involved in the illegal construction ofcolonies and strict action will be taken against them, so that the menace doesnot take place in future.
The question that rises is thatwhether this will just remain in papers or any step will be taken against it.
Also, the matter of concern isthat what will the government do for the people residing in these colonies.