NCR sub-plan notified by cabinet, Haryana seeks legal opinion

The state wants to know if it can start issuing CLUs and licences now that it has notified the sub-regional plan.

3 min readChandigarhJun 14, 2014 03:39 AM IST First published on: Jun 14, 2014 at 03:39 AM IST

The govt wants to know if it can start issuing CLUs and licences. (Archive)

In a bid to re-initiate the process of granting grant licences and allowing change of land use (CLU) certificates before the upcoming Assembly elections, the Haryana government has sought legal opinion on a sub-regional plan notified by its cabinet last week.

The state wants to know if it can start issuing CLUs and licences now that it has notified the sub-regional plan. A number of housing and commercial projects were halted after a Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling that barred issuance of licences and CLUs in the National Capital Region (NCR), particularly in Gurgaon.

“We are not issuing any licences and CLUs because of the court ruling. The approved plan has been sent to the Advocate General to see if the government can start its operations in NCR. The plan has been made for all nine districts that fall under NCR,” a senior officer of the Town and Country Planning Department said.

Sources said the government would not have been able to restart the process on proposed new projects without a sub-regional plan, and hence, prepared one in a hurry without due consideration to environmental guidelines. Sources claimed that the government had ignored concerns regarding natural conservation zones by failing to ensure that they don’t come under urbanisable areas.

The government’s emphasis, in the plan, has been on its legal aspects so that it does not get embroiled in any controversy. The new plan puts particular focus on industrialisation in the NCR, both in the organised and small enterprise sectors. Additional stress has been laid on information technology and biotechnology sectors.
It also proposes to give a major boost to housing needs especially in Gurgaon and Faridabad. The new plan is open to involving public-private-partnership in all the major areas in the NCR. It also proposes to build a strong public transport system.

“We want to get rid of air pollution from vehicular pressure. Hence, there is a conscious effort to promote public transport systems,” a senior officer said. To facilitate big businesses, the plan envisages small airports at three locations in NCR. The government also plans to create prime educational and research projects under the sub-plan.