Haryana govt okays eco-friendly farmhouses near urban areas

Pradeep Sharma 

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, September 20 

The urban landscape of Haryana is set to change with the BJP-JJP government unveiling a new policy for the setting up of eco-friendly farmhouses. 

Under the policy, which would be applicable in the area beyond 500 metre of the urbanisable zone of the towns and cities in the agriculture zone, the owners would be able to get the change of land use (CLU) to set up farmhouses on under two categories, minimum of one acre and 1-2 acres. 

AK Singh, Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning, said while only one dwelling unit would be allowed on farmhouses spread over a minimum of 1 acre of land, the main dwelling unit and ancillary unit (servant quarter and farm and animal sheds) would be allowed in the  1-2 acre and above 2 acre of land. 

A maximum ground coverage of 8% of will be allowed for the main unit in the 1-2 acre category. The ground coverage 800 square metre will be permissible for main unit on the farmhouse above 2 acre. 

The policy said  1% of the total farmhouse area could be used for   constructing single story ancillary units subject to  a maximum 150 square metre.  

However,  the setting up of the “self-sustaining”  farmhouses will be strictly regulated with the beneficiaries  mandated to take environment-friendly  measures, including installation of solar water heating systems, 100% treatment of waste water,  rain water harvesting,  site processing of all green/animal waste, tree plantation over 15% of the farm land and strictly no commercial use of the premises. 

Besides, as part of the recreational activities on the farmhouse, a swimming pool (up to 50 square metre) would be permitted for the personal use of the owners. The provision of the Haryana Apartment Ownership Act shall not applicable on the sites approved under the policy, which meant that any structure in the farmhouse cannot sold to another party. 

Meanwhile, a District Level Monitoring Committee, headed by the concerned DC, will conduct regular checks on the premises to ensure that various provisions of the policy are implemented in letter and spirit. 

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