Apartment Act: Report likely by Monsoon session

A panel set up by Speaker Tulsi Ram to probe into the Essentiality Certificates (ECs) granted to private builders and colonisers under controversial Apartment and Property Regulations Act 2005 is likely to finalise its report before upcoming monsoon session of the Assembly beginning next month.

The seven-member assembly committee headed by BJP’s Shimla MLA Suresh Bhardwaj would inquire into the ‘irregularities committed’ by the two successive governments since the enactment of the law in 2005 and recommend if the Act was really needed in the state where land holdings are already shirking and outsiders are buying land for non-agriculture purposes.

Bhardwaj said that the panel has suggested visiting some of the spots,where the private housing projects were sanctioned reportedly in violation of the law.

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However,before touring the districts,the committee has invited views of the citizens by July 20 on these projects and whether the Act should be scrapped. Next meeting of the committee is convened on July 27.

Sources said that during the examination of the official records relating to grant of ECs to the private builders,the committee found that Congress government too took decisions “favouring” some private promoters of housing projects.