Property registration in illegal colonies banned in Punjab

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Chandigarh/Faridkot, May 25

The Punjab Government has banned registration of any sale deed of plots/houses constructed in any unauthorised colony in the state.

The orders were issued by the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management. The order says that Punjab is facing the menace of illegal/unauthorised colonies, which have mushroomed in the state, and are resulting in haphazard urbanisation.

The orders also say that residents of such colonies suffer problems due to lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity, road, water and sewerage system. Another dimension of this fraud is that many times, people who spend their life’s savings to buy a plot, do not get possession its plot.

“The mushrooming of illegal colonies cannot happen without the negligence of the government machinery. No officer of the Revenue Department, Local Government Department, Housing and Urban Development Department, can feign ignorance about the mushrooming of illegal colonies in their jurisdiction,” read the order.

The order has also quoted various sections of the Registration Act, to say that such properties cannot be registered.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and Local Government will notify a list of authorised and legal colonies in its jurisdiction with land record details. The registration authorities will not ask for NOCs for such colonies at the time of registration of property.

In the rest of the areas, NOCs will be mandatory and the department will ensure that the field officers remain vigilant about the illegal colonies, said the letter, by the Under Secretary, Revenue.

“Public and registration officers have practically no way to know whether the plot they are going to purchase and register is part of a legal or illegal residential colony as existing revenue records, laws and registration process were not designed for such purpose,” alleged Gurdev Singh Dham, president, Punjab Revenue Officers’ Association.