Revised policy by month-end, developers term it their victory

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 18

As it became clear at a Group of Ministers (GOM) meeting with the stake holders (developers) at Mohali on Tuesday that near consensus was arrived at on the proposed changes in the revised policy for regularisation of illegal colonies across the state, the developers went in a celebratory mode – terming the major changes to be incorporated in the revised policy as their victory.

Both Kultar Singh Jogi and GS Lamba, president and secretary, respectively, of the Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association, said the government, and in particular the Minister for Housing and Urban Development Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, had done well to concede the major demands of developers to regularise the unlicensed colonies on ‘as is where is’ basis even though the draft policy says that this particular condition would apply only to those colonies where 50 per cent or more plots had been sold.

“Going by the draft policy discussed at length at the meeting with the GOM (at Mohali), the policy would turn out to be a practical document unlike all other previous policies framed for this purpose which failed to enthuse the developers and did not yield the desired results,” said Jogi.

Lamba was of the view that given the relaxed conditions like delinking regularisation of plots/properties from compounding of unlicensed colonies, taking into consideration sale of plots rather than built-up area and relief in width of internal roads in colonies where more than 25 per cent plots had been sold were going to be the key features of the revised policy. “The relaxed conditions in the policy would go a long way towards regularisation of most of the illegal colonies and bringing huge revenue to the government,” Lamba added.

Another city-based developer Gulshan Kumar, CEO of GK Group, said a practical and developer-friendly policy for regularisation of unlicensed colonies would be widely welcome by the colonisers as well as those having invested their money in such colonies. “The government has done well to have an across-the-table dialogue with the stake holders and (hopefully) formulate a relaxed and viable policy in order to curb the proliferation of illegal colonies,” he said. 

"The policy would turn out to be a practical document unlike all other previous policies framed for this purpose which failed to enthuse the developers and did not yield the desired results,"

Kultar Singh Jogi, president, Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association

"The relaxed conditions in the policy would go a long way towards regularisation of most of the illegal colonies and bringing huge revenue to the government,"

GS Lamba, secretary, Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association 

"The government has done well to have an across-the-table dialogue with the stake holders and (hopefully) formulate a relaxed and viable policy in order to curb the proliferation of illegal colonies,"

Gulshan Kumar, CEO of GK Group