CHANDIGARH, APRIL 3: Taking a cue from Delhi, Haryana has decided to regularise connections of electricity and lift ban on new connections in unauthorised colonies existing on private land.Disclosing this here on Monday, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials said the consumers would have to deposit regularisation and development charges at the rate of Rs 20 per square yard for a plot of size below 100 square yards in Faridabad and Gurgaon to obtain new connections in unauthorised colonies. For a plot of size above 100 square yards, the regularisation fee would be Rs 30 per square yard in these two cities. In other areas, the charges would be Rs 15 and Rs 25 per square yard respectively.The decision, which was taken by the DHBVN board of directors at a recent meeting, would be implemented in Sirsa, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon and Faridabad. The regularisation and development charges would be without prejudice for legal of illegal status of the colonies vis-a-vis various laws of the state, they observed, adding that the collection of the regularisation and developmnent charges would only indicate provision of electricity in these colonies and would not in any way indicate regularisation of any colony.However, the decision would not applicable to premises constructed illegally by encroaching in land under the ownership or management or control of the state government, local bodies or any board or corporation wholly or partly owned by the government. The government had stopped release of connections to unauthorised colonies existing on private land in 1997."Due to non-release of connections, the residents of these colonies have been indulging in unauthorised use of electricity from the distribution system of the nigam near these colonies, resulting in substantial loss of revenue," they pointed out.
