After demolition drive, carried out by JDA, at an illegal colony in village Dhadda in Jalandhar Three out of every four sale deeds in the unauthorized colonies have been registered illegally by the tehsildars and registrars without obtaining the mandatory no objection certificate (NOC) from the competent authorities. This was revealed during the recent inquiries into the registries and sale deeds of residential plots in a few illegal and unauthorised colonies in just three tehsils of three districts of Punjab. Nearly 15,000 illegal colonies have mushroomed in Punjab over the past eight years.
Soon after the illegal deeds came to fore, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) who is also Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) suspended three tehsildars. This sparked a protest with tehsildars across the state going on mass leave from Wednesday alleging that there was no clear policy on registering sale deeds in illegal colonies.
As per the norms, sale deeds of plots cannot be registered without obtaining a NOC from the competent authorities. However, sources in the revenue department revealed that thousands of sale deeds took place in the 15,000 illegal colonies while thousands are waiting to take possession of plots despite having them registered in their names.
Such illegal registries continued till last week when FCR Anurag Aggarwal issued a letter (dated May 24) mentioning guidelines for sale deeds in illegal colonies.
Best of Express Premium
Sources said inquiries into sale deeds of only a few illegal colonies in Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana East and Zirakpur tehsils were conducted. It was found that 70 pert cent of sale deeds were registered by tehsildars without NOCs, which was to be obtained by the buyers from the competent authorities, including the department of housing and urban development and civic bodies.
RTI activist Rajiv Vashishth said that these three inquiries are just the tip of the iceberg as the data for the scrutiny is from just three months – December 2021 to February 2022.
Vashishth, who obtained information about Hoshiarpur that has 158 illegal colonies, said, “In a single colony, plots were sold at different rates from Rs 50,000 per marla (225 Sq feet) to Rs 2.61 lakh per marla. In August last year, the state government had given an undertaking in the Punjab and Haryana High Court mentioning that it will not register plots or properties in illegal and unauthorised colonies without obtaining NOC”.
Aggarwal’s letter mentions: “In the past few years, thousands of illegal or unauthorised colonies have mushroomed in the state. This is not only a huge revenue loss to the state but also a fraud on the people. Such colonies are resulting in haphazard urbanisation, where residents suffer problems due to the lack of basic infrastructures such as electricity, road, drinking water, sewerage system.”
Aggarwal’s letter also stated that many a times, people who spend all their life saving to buy a small plot, do not get its possession. This happens because the illegal colonisers sell the share of the colony that otherwise was kept reserved for civic facilities such as streets, parks.
No officer of Revenue Department, Housing and Urban Development Department can feign ignorance about the mushrooming of illegal/unauthorised colonies in their jurisdiction, mentioned the letter.
When asked why the people were not getting possession of their plots even after registry on their names, Aggarwal said that reserving 40% open area in every colony is mandatory but in these illegal colonies, such spaces are being sold in the form of plots. “We will soon launch a portal in which people, who bought plots in these illegal colonies and have not got possession of land, can upload the complaint along with the sale deeds of their respective plots so that the government can ensure them justice,” he said.
Sources in the Revenue Department said that such portals are also needed to be opened by the Department of Housing and Urban Development where lists of authorised/legal colonies in their jurisdiction with landmarks of the area must be mentioned and also the list of illegal colonies must be mentioned so that registrar and sub registrar get such information on hand while registering the sale deeds in any colony.
Sources in the government said that there are very few illegal colonies in Haryana compared to Punjab. Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA), local bodies, Department of Housing and Urban Development have all failed to check the menace of illegal colonies and sometimes have also promoted illegal registration of sale deeds.
Ajoy Kumar Sinha, principal secretary of Housing and Urban development, Punjab, said that they will be providing a list of all illegal colonies under their jurisdiction with Khasra numbers in a day to the respective tehsils. He added that no illegal colony will come up in Punjab in the future.
Punjab revenue minister Brahm Shanker Sharma Jimpa accepted that there are 10,000-15,000 illegal colonies in the state and a huge scam has taken place in sale deeds. He added he is going to take up the matter with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on Thursday and make a fullproof policy to check mushrooming of the illegal colonies.
General secretary of Tehsildar Association in Punjab Sukhchran Singh Channi said that if such registeries have taken place across the state, the government should place all tehisildars under suspension. “Despite our repeated letters and meetings with government officials no clear instructions have been given to us,” he added.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
