According to senior government sources, over 4 lakh illegal structures could still turn legal due to the measure. (Representational photo/Files/Aishwarya Maheshwari)
The Maharashtra government has unveiled rules for the regularisation of unauthorised constructions in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and other urban neighbourhoods across the state. The rules for the regularisation were formally published on Friday. The policy will apply to unauthorised structures constructed in urban belts before December 31, 2015.
But it has not been extended to unauthorised developments in ecologically sensitive and prohibited areas such as rivers, canals, tanks, blue flood lines, defence lands, quarries, heritage sites, dumping grounds, mangroves, forest lands, and buffer zones. Illegal structures constructed violating land use norms in non-residential zones also won’t be covered under it.
According to senior government sources, over 4 lakh illegal structures could still turn legal due to the measure.
Earlier this year, Fadnavis had run an election campaign for the local body polls where he had promised regularisation of illegal buildings. The move will extend a lifeline to the 20,000 residents of Navi Mumbai’s Digha village, where the Bombay HC had earlier ordered a demolition drive.
In Thane, Mumbai’s biggest satellite town, officials said that over 1 lakh buildings have reportedly committed illegalities, while 65,000 unauthorised buildings exist in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Fadnavis had earlier included redevelopment of illegal buildings as a rehabilitation component in the urban renewal scheme for Thane. In Mumbai, the commercial capital, the move will mainly benefit residents of hundreds of buildings, where the builders have built beyond the permissible floor space index limits. Sources said that the Campa Cola compound residents may benefit from it too.
A one-time penalty will be collected from the beneficiaries for the regularisation in the form of compounding fee and infrastructure charges. This would be at least three times the payable development charge for the plot in question. The development charge is computed on the basis of ready reckoner rates.
The Bombay High Court had criticised this mass regularisation plan earlier.
Following the publication of the rules on Friday, the government has now directed all the municipalities to invite applications from owners or occupiers of unauthorised structures who are interested in claiming the benefit. It has directed them to complete this exercise within the next six months. Once an unauthorised structure is ‘compounded’, the government has said that “no further development shall be permissible other than repairs and maintenance.” It has further stated, “Any redevelopment or reconstruction of the structures shall be permitted only as per development control rules.”
Earlier in March, a Bombay High Court division bench had struck down the government’s policy for regularisation. But the Maharashtra legislative assembly adopted a legislation to reintroduce it the following month. The court had struck down such an exercise once last year too, contending that “drastic regularisation” exercise will force planning authorities to modify the city’s sanctioned development plan. Despite the court’s objection, the new rules have a regularisation clause for buildings with inadequate set back areas and parking spaces.
For buildings where there is a violation of permissible built up areas, the government has said that additional floor space index or transferable development rights could be utilised for the regularisation. The government will levy a premium for the additional FSI.
Besides regularising lakhs of buildings in one stroke, the government is also hoping to fill the state coffers through the exercise. After announcing a Rs 34,022 crore farm loan waiver scheme last month, the government has been exploring options of mobilising more revenue. Illegal constructions on lands reserved for public purpose would be regularised if the option of relocation of the reservation was available.
