GLADA cracks whip to make developers fall in line

Kuldip Bhatia
Ludhiana, May 24

The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) means business and would not allow unscrupulous developers/ promoters of colonies to have a free run. This has become clear by registration of three criminal cases for development of illegal colonies at Noorwala and Partap Singh Wala on the periphery of the city earlier this week. 

Though GLADA officials – most of them having been busy with the ongoing Lok Sabha elections process till now – are tightlipped over the issue, sources indicate that a policy decision has been taken to crack the whip on developers, who are not coming forward to get their existing illegal colonies regularised under the policy formulated by the state government.

Earlier, on developers demand, the Punjab Government had extended the last date for regularisation of illegal colonies from February 18 to June 30, 2019, under the policy notified on October 19, 2018. 

However, submission of just about 300 odd applications for regularisation of colonies out of total number standing at around 2,000 clearly indicates that developers are not keen to avail this one-time opportunity. 

On reluctance of developers to get their colonies regularised, GLADA officials maintain that they, having sold major part of their plots and properties in illegal colonies, were not prepared to spend more money from their own pockets for regularisation. However, developers blame the procedural tangles and bureaucracy for failure of the new policy to attract developers.

GS Lamba, general secretary of Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association, the representative body of realtors, said,  “Developers at large are happy over certain features (of the policy), including permission for manual submission of applications at Sewa Kendras and designated branches of the HDFC Bank, besides online submission, acceptance of applications in single set in place of eight sets and permission to upload more than one application from single e-mail ID.” 

“However, some other crucial issues are still unaddressed,” he added.

“The major hurdle is confusion over waiver of interest on pending dues for applications submitted for regularisation by developers under previous policies. The government has issued instructions for waiving off the interest portion (ratified vide Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Punjab letter No. 957-62/CTP-(PUDA)-SP-176 dated February 12, 2019) whereas officials of development authorities, including GLADA, are not prepared to accept this decision,” another city-based coloniser Gulshan Kumar said while alleging that the dealing staff and GLADA officials were also raising unnecessary objections during processing of applications.

Some other players in realty sector pointed out that various other issues like different rate of development charges for colonies located within and outside the city limits, simplification of procedure, single window system and formation of a state property board for better coordination between developers and regulatory bodies were also keeping the applicants away. 

They asserted that unless necessary amendments were carried out in the policy in consultation with the stakeholders, and that too without any further delay, the policy would fail to achieve its desired objectives.