Menace of illegal colonies

Large-scale migration from rural to urban areas as well as the property boom led to the mushrooming of thousands of illegal colonies all across Punjab over the past couple of decades. Bursting at their seams, most cities are an unseemly picture of unplanned growth and expansion. This is a sad reflection of the paucity of government foresight to cater to the demand for affordable housing. Unsettling questions on how the settlements could come up without the necessary clearances, as also how the authorities looked the other way, seem to have been brushed under the carpet. The result of not nipping the issue in the bud is that today the state is faced with the challenging complexity of regularising 6,000 colonies as it cannot afford to displace the lakhs of people — a formidable vote bank, now — who inhabit the colonies. They have put in their lifetime’s savings in their dream plots and apartments.

It is a pity that successive state governments have not been able to properly regulate and regularise all illegal houses despite policies framed from time to time. During the previous SAD-BJP regime, of the 7,000 illegal colonies, nearly 2,500 were regularised. The offer of the present Congress government to legalise them has elicited only 1,100 applications. Obviously, there are gaps in the proposals. The authorities need to iron out the creases in a strictly one-time, time-bound manner with all the stakeholders: the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority, local governments, builders and residents. The regularisation will help the people get authorised power and water supply, sewerage and roads. The revenue collected from the process of regularisation will ensure these civic amenities. A look into the Delhi plan in this connection would help.

But first, there is an urgent need to filter out structures that for various reasons are unviable and must be demolished. Like the constructions in the Sukhna wetland that were recently ordered to be razed by the High Court. Urbanisation at the cost of environment is counter-productive. Zero tolerance for any colony that is allowed to spring up illegally henceforth would ultimately make Punjab cities ‘smart’ and livable.