Punjab Govt asks developers, plot owners to furnish additional details at time of registry
Rajmeet Singh
Chandigarh, July 3
In order to tighten the noose around unauthorised colonies, the state government has made it mandatory for colonisers and plot holders to furnish details of developers’ licence, including date of issue, PAN number and several other documents at the time of registration of properties.
“It will help in streamlining the registration process of the properties in the approved colonies. There is a separate column for the unapproved colonies,” said a senior government functionary.
As a result, Sub-Registrars have started asking for related documents from the intended beneficiary.
A high-powered committee has held several meetings in the last two years to streamline the process of monitoring and issuing online NOCs for the approved colonies. As multiple agencies are involved in verifying the record, there have been delays in issuing the NOCs.
There were many cases in which sale agreements of the approved colonies were executed before March 19, 2018, but their physical existence could not be verified through Google Images.
A proposed Bill to check the mushrooming of illegal colonies is yet to be drafted by the government. Officially, there are around 15,000 unauthorised colonies in the state.
An amendment aimed at regularising plots in illegal colonies where construction has taken place till December 31, 2022, is still pending.
The proposed waiver has a rider that the execution of the sale agreement should have taken place before March 19, 2018. The proposed amendments also entail the recovery of regularisation charges from individual plot holders in colonies where 25 per cent of the plots have been sold, besides initiation of legal proceedings against defaulting colonisers.
Officials in the Local Government and Housing Department pointed out that there’s no way to approve the unauthorised colonies under the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions for Regularisation of Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2018.
The issue of waiving of the NOC involves legal complications as the matter pertaining to illegal colonies is pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
