Golden chance to get occupation certificates

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

The Haryana Government has decided to give a golden chance to building owners to get occupation certificates on the occasion of the golden jubilee of Haryana’s creation. The Khattar Government has decided to grant one-time relaxation to lakhs of house owners for obtaining occupation certificates for residential and commercial buildings across the state.

“A facility, on the lines of the 2001 policy, may be given again for residential and commercial buildings for a limited period from August 15 to December 31 , as a goodwill gesture in the golden jubilee year of the formation of Haryana,” stated a HUDA proposal approved by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is also HUDA chairman, on July 23.

Under the policy, the requests for occupation certificates would be considered on the basis of the date of application and not on the date of actual construction. Under the policy, the violations can also be compounded after the payment of the compounding fee, besides the payment of one-time fee of Rs 10,000 for processing a request for the occupation certificate.

As continuation of the 2001 policy, HUDA came out with an amended policy in 2004 to make it an open-ended policy. HUDA discontinued the open-ended policy in 2014 .

Despite the open ended policy remaining in force for 10 years (2004-2014), a large number of building owners did not obtain the occupation/completion certificates leading to legal complications. “The one-time relief is being given to building owners in public interest so that there were no legal complications at a later stage,” official sources added.