Development Authority rejects 212 illegal colonies

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 29

Five years after the latest policy for regularisation of illegal colonies and plots in the state came into being, the Patiala Development Authority (PDA) has concluded almost all cases and rejected 212 unauthorised colonies in the district.

The Punjab Department of Housing and Urban Development had notified two policies to regularise the irregular colonies —colonies that were developed without the approval of the authorities concerned. Residents of the colonies had applied for regularisation under the 2013 and 2018 regularisation policies.

Officials of the PDA said since their notification, they had received a total of 353 applications under the two policies. Of these, only five passed the criteria laid down in the respective notifications. A whopping 212 applications for regularisation had been cancelled owing to a lack of proper documentation and faulty declarations in the applications.

The officials added that the office received 242 applications (including 162 for areas under Tehsil Patiala) under the 2013 regularisation policy. Of these, only four were regularised. The office transferred 33 to the Municipal Corporation and attached 41 to the 2018 regularisation policy. The office dealt with 166 applications and cancelled 153. They said 12 applications are in process for final documentation.

Similarly, they received 111 applications under the 2018 regularisation policy. Of these, they regularised one application. A total of 12 applications were attached to the 2013 policy files. Of the 99 other cases evaluated under the policy, it has cancelled 58 applications, while 41 are in process for final documentation.

Additional Chief Administrator at PDA Manjeet Singh Cheema said though the last date for submission of all documents was November 14, it was extended for another six months for the completion of all formalities. They said the office has already issued the orders of rejection to the concerned colonizers. He said, “We will initiate action under Section 36 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act 1995 against those developers who fail to file appeals against the rejection orders within the given stipulated time period.”