Cabinet to take call on new policy to regularise colonies

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 26

Putting in place the revised basic infrastructure norm, the state Council of Ministers will tomorrow take a call on the new policy to regularise illegal colonies in the state.

The agenda item was deferred in the last Cabinet meeting held on December 20 after Cabinet ministers - Navjot Singh Sidhu, Brahm Mohindra and Charanjit Channi – had raised the issue of laid down norms on roads, parks and other urban infrastructure.

Sources say in the reworked norms it has been proposed that individual plots will be regularised only after the respective illegal colony is regularised. This will be in withdrawal from the earlier procedure during the SAD-BJP government that allowed individual plot owners to get their property regularised, irrespective of the legal status of the colony in which their plot was located.

Apart from the penal clause, the issue of regularisation vis-à-vis the covered area has also been defined in the new regulation. A senior government functionary said the previous Akali government had thrice extended the deadline for the illegal plot holders to apply for regularisation of their property. The new proposed guidelines would also apply to the colonies concerning the areas governed by the Local Bodies Department. Before finalising the guidelines, feedback from the Local Bodies Department has been sought.

It has also been proposed that the plot buyer’s money collected by the promoter of illegal colonies would have to be spent in the respective colony. Intention is to discourage the builders from diverting investor’s money.

Industrial promotion meet

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will chair a meeting of the Industrial Promotion Board to discuss the Amritsar-Rajpura corridor, besides other issues.