Punjab: Parts of colonies extending beyond MC limits to be governed by Housing Dept

Rajmeet Singh

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Chandigarh, November 8

Any part of regularised colonies falling outside municipal limits of 167 urban local bodies will now be governed by the Urban Housing Department.

According to official sources, there are around 700 licensed colonies that have land pockets outside MC limits. The Local Government Department has clarified that the colonies, having land pockets outside the MC limits, will now be governed by Housing Department.

Officials in the local government said a notification of the Housing Department had been extended. If any area of a colony partially falling in municipal limit and partially outside it, the authority in whose jurisdiction more than 50 per cent of the colony falls will be the competent authority under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995.

The external development charges (EDC) will be taken proportionally by the competent authorities.

Under the Housing Department, the authorities are the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA), the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA), the Amritsar Development Authority (ADA), the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) and the Patiala Development Authority (PDA).

Meanwhile, a move by AAP government to announce major amendments to the regularisation policy to facilitate the speedy disposal of cases pertaining to regularisation of plots in unauthorised colonies is still pending.

The proposal allows regularisation of colonies where construction has taken place till December 31, 2022. Subject to the condition that the execution of the sale agreement should have taken place before March 19, 2018. The proposed amendments would have entailed the recovery of regularisation charges from individual plot holders in colonies where 25 per cent of the plots have been sold, besides initiation of legal proceedings against defaulting colonisers and recovery of dues from them.