Chandigarh, October 31
In a big relief to those owning houses in 1,300 unauthorised colonies in Haryana, the state government is all set to regularise their constructions. While the colonies per se cannot be regularised, the government, finding a way out, has decided to approve individual constructions in these pockets.

However, the colonisers responsible for curving out illegal colonies will be prosecuted and proceeded against as per law. Sources said while the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department had decided to grant exemption to the construction under the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Area Act, 1963, and the Haryana Development and Regulation of the Urban Areas Act, 1975, the Urban Local Bodies will issue orders regularising the construction subsequently.

Though the announcement of regularising illegal colonies was made by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during the Assembly session in February 2009, the process hit a roadblock soon.

The TCP Department held that the colonies could not be regularised since it amounted to the violation of the very Acts it regulated. While the Controlled Area Act, 1963, bars violations committed without the permission of the department, the Urban Areas Act prohibits curving out of illegal colonies.The issue kept hanging fire since the department could not afford to violate the two Acts. The issue was again raised during the Assembly session in August this year during which Minister of State Gopal Kanda said the matter was being examined.

The TCP and the Urban Local Bodies Department recently resolved the issue of violations with the latter agreeing to grant exemption under the two Acts to individuals and not to colonies, meaning thereby that the Acts would not be violated.

Meanwhile, the Urban Local Bodies Department has a list of over 1,300 illegal colonies. “It is only a matter of time now before these colonies are regularised. We have asked the municipalities to process individual cases and send them through the Deputy Commissioners. The information is gradually coming in. The Chief Minister is expected to convene a meeting shortly to approve the plan,” the minister said.

Sources in the TCP Department said since colonies could not be approved under the law, the Department would fix boundaries for these colonies based on satellite imagery and approve individual construction cases in all such pockets.

The criterion for regularising illegal colonies lays down that only unauthorised colonies where construction has taken place on more than 50 per cent plots and have adequate development works would be considered. For this purpose, June 2009 was declared the cut-off date. The vacant plots falling in the internal areas of these unauthorised colonies would be considered part of such colonies.

Sources said a regularisation fee at the rate of Rs 250 per sq m for the municipal corporation area, Rs 200 per sq m for the municipal council and Rs 150 per sq m for municipal committees would be charged as per the tentative plan. For the house already constructed, water supply, electric and sewerage connection shall be released only after depositing regularisation fee. An increase of 10 per cent of these charges shall be leviable after the lapse of stipulated period of one year from the date of notification.