UT moves to regularise houses outside lal dora

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

Raising hopes of thousands of people living outside the lal dora in villages, the UT Administration has started the process for the regularisation of their houses, built illegally over the years.

Sources said a decision to set up a committee to look into the issue was taken at a meeting of elected representatives of panchayats and the zila parishad, and senior officers of the Administration today. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kirron Kher, MP.

Kirron said the committee would survey the construction outside the lal dora and submit a report to the Administration for taking a suitable decision.

She said the issue required urgent attention as residents had been approaching her for a permanent solution to the problem.

The sources said the regularisation of houses was an important agenda of the meeting. Lal dora refers to that part of traditional village land that can be used for non-agricultural purposes only or for support systems such as livestock. No construction or commercial activities are allowed in the area. However, due to expansion of families, villagers have been constructing houses outside the lal dora. They have received notices  for the demolition of the houses.

Villages where a majority of the people  live outside the  lal dora include  Kaimbwala, Khuda Ali Sher, Khuda Lahora, Khuda Jassu, Sarangpur, Dhanas, Kishangarh, Behlana, Daria, Mauli Jagran, Makhanmajra, Raipur Kalan and Raipur Khurd.    

The Chandigarh draft master plan-2031 also pointed out that unauthorised constructions had come up on over 250 acres outside the lal dora in UT villages.

Villagers said a large number of families had been living outside the lal dora for years  and had all facilities such as water connection, power connection, ration cards and voter cards.