Housing Dept takes steps to check mushrooming of illegal colonies

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

After doing away with the requirement of no-objection certificate (NOC) for the registration of land and property, the Punjab Housing and Urban Development has initiated an exercise to check mushrooming of illegal colonies across the state.

Officially, there are around 14,000 illegal colonies in the state, though the actual figure may be much higher.

Rahul Tewari, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, has directed the chief administrators of the regional development authorities at Patiala, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar to ensure that no illegal colony comes up. They have been asked to study the google images for last three months to keep tabs on illegal constructions and take immediate legal action against the violators.

The secretary has also sought quarterly report on new unauthorised colonies, details of action taken against the colonisers and details of the action taken against the erring officials, if any.

After the Cabinet recently gave in-principal approval to do away with the clause of NOC for the registration of land and property, the housing department has been asked to work out modalities to extend the relief to the intended beneficiaries.

A one-time relief of exemption from NOC will be given to property owners who are able to prove the genuineness of the sale deed of their property executed before July 31, 2024. At present, the issue of regularising illegal colonies is dealt with under the Punjab Laws (Special Provisions for Regularisation of Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2018.

Many genuine buyers in such colonies have been reportedly facing problems in getting NOCs from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Local Government.

Due to the involvement of multiple agencies in verifying the records of NOC seekers, there were complaints of delay in the issuance of the certificate, sources said. There were many cases in which the sale agreements of such colonies were executed before March 19, 2018, but their physical existence could not be verified using Google images.

The Housing and Urban Development Department was coordinating with the Local Bodies and Revenue Department and the office of the Advocate General (AG) for working out modalities before extending the one-time relief to property owners, officials said.