GLADA asks powercom not to give electricity connections to illegal colonies

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 30

Even as illegal colonies continue to come up across the city and especially on the periphery of the industrial hub, the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has made yet another desperate bid to rein in unscrupulous developers by asking Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) not to give any new electricity connections to such colonies.

While confirming development GLADA Estate Officer Sonam Chaudhry said she did agree that the issue was more complex to deal with because there were quite a few colonies that were not regularised under the (now lapsed) government policy. Many owners in such colonies had got their plots and properties compounded on payment of stipulate composition fee, she added.

“A property or plot owner, who holds the NOC issued by the competent authority is indeed entitled to apply and get a new electricity connection. But the objective of taking up this matter with the PSPCL was to make sure that power connections are not given to colonies that had not applied for regularisation,” she said.

The PSPCL Chief Engineer (Central Zone), Bhupinder Khosla, told The Tribune that the matter of refusing power connection to illegal colonies had been referred back to GLADA for providing details of licenced colonies so that the power utility could distinguish between eligible and ineligible applicants.

Pointing towards practical constraints in denial of new electricity connections, he said where installation of internal distribution system like transformers, electricity poles and cables in an entire colony was concerned the developer could be asked to provide NOC or any other documentary proof of the competent authority. New power connections could not be refused to individual property owners – both domestic and commercial – especially when such applicant possesses NOC or proof of having paid composition fee under the government policy for regularisation of colonies as well as plots and properties in unlicensed colonies, he added.

Earlier, another bid by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Punjab, for non-registration of sale deeds in illegal colonies was scuttled by the Revenue Department, which had taken the stand that since the registration of sale deeds was governed by a Central Act no state legislation could have an overriding effect on the working of the department.

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