Punjab Cabinet sub-committee, after unanimously finalizing the draft policy on illegal colonies, on Friday laid out that no illegal colony would be regularised in the State after 2018.
The draft policy of un-authorised colonies, which will now be tabled before the Cabinet for final approval, was given the final shape in the sub-committee’s third meeting held on Friday at Punjab Bhawan under the chairmanship of state health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra.
The Committee, comprising Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, in principal decided that after 2018, no unauthorised colony in Punjab will be regularised at any cost.
Panel head Brahm Mohindra said that the salient features of the draft policy that has been finalised by the Group of Minister which laid out that only unauthorised colonies, developed up to April 1, 2018, shall be regularised.
At the same time, it was made clear that stringent action will be taken against the colonizer of a colony which comes after April 1, 2018.
The policy will be open for a period of 12 months from the date of notification.
The draft policy stated that the colonizers, who could not apply under previous policies, should apply under this policy for regularisation of their colonies. The regularisation charges earlier paid under the previous policies, if any, shall be adjusted under this policy.
Liberal charges are fixed for regularisation of colonies.
Amount of charges received from the regularisation of a particular colony shall be used for providing basic infrastructure to that particular colony only, said Mohindra adding that the payment of charges shall be in instalments within a period of one year.
“The committees of officers shall be constituted to regularise the colonies and plots within as well as outside of municipal limits. Each committee will scrutinize the cases within the time limit of three months,” he added.
The policy stated that the Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA) shall be formed for each unauthorized colony by its residents and the RWA can also submit application for regularization of the colony to the concerned authority.