Illegal colonies on rise, ‘Local Bodies dept not keen to adopt new rule’

The mushrooming of illegal colonies has continued despite several government policies in the past to keep a tab on their growth. The Cabinet had approved the Punjab Affordable Housing Policy-2023 in February this year, and the Housing & Urban Development (HUD) department issued the notification on 22/03/2023, superseding the earlier policy dated 04/01/2022 of the erstwhile government. However, the Local Bodies department has not issued any notification about the adoption of the new policy till date.

This policy is applicable outside municipal body limits under the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA).
In the new policy, some changes have been made to the January 2022 policy by relaxing certain conditions to make it more acceptable to real estate promoters, with the goal of stopping the growth of illegal colonies.

The previous government had brought a policy in 2021 which was amended and adopted by PUDA in January 2022 and now the new affordable policy of the AAP government has relaxed several conditions of the 2022 policy, which has been notified by PUDA but not by Local Bodies department.

Sources in the Punjab HUD department state, “The department of Local Bodies does not believe in incentivising the real estate sector to control the growth of illegal colonies and is continuing with the conditions of March 17, 2021, policy of the previous government.” They further add that the Local Bodies department is not happy with the new conditions, which include a reduction of the development charges of the colonies by half.

The development charges, which were previously Rs 15 lakh per acre, have been reduced to half in the PUDA colonies now.

According to the 2023 policy, the reservation of an area for a community centre is waived, while the Local Bodies policy of 2021 mandated reserving 3% of the area for a community centre. Under the PUDA policy, the park area is set at 7.5% of the colony, while the Local Bodies policy states that 5% of the area is meant for a park.

The affordable housing policy states that there is no need to reserve Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses, whereas the Local Bodies policy keeps 5% for EWS housing. The development charges for rest of Punjab, barring Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) regional plan, are halved, while the Local Bodies department continues with the prevailing area development rates.

Experts said that the state government has incentivised the promoters by reducing the development charges by half for rest of Punjab barring GMADA regional plan area, but the Local Bodies department is still continuing with the prevailing rates which are acting as an impediment for the planned development in municipal limits and resulting in the growth of illegal colonies in municipal limits. With the reduced developmental charges, more promoters will carve out authorised colonies in MC limits in small towns, they added.

An expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “It will benefit municipal committees even if the development charges are half because in the present situation nothing is coming to the treasury of the Local Bodies because hardly any promoter is carving out an authorised colony due to the high development charges.

For instance, if the Local Bodies department has to develop a colony, it requires around Rs 60 lakh per acre to provide all the basic amenities in such a colony including roads, sewer, water, and others.

On the other hand, if a promoter is carving out an approved colony, he has to bear all the development costs himself including the construction of roads, laying of sewer and water pipes, and other basic amenities. Additionally, he has to pay the development charges to the authority concerned – PUDA or Local Bodies – which will inspect the legality of the carved-out colony.

Moreover, the government will earn more stamp duty from approved colonies when the plots/properties are sold there.

Also, the Local Bodies department has not put any data related to approved or unauthorised colonies under its jurisdiction on the website after 2018.

The Indian Express tried to contact Punjab Local Bodies Minister Balkar Singh but he could not be reached. However, his assistant mentioned that he will inform the minister.