Punjab’s lopsided approach to unauthorised colonies
ILLEGAL COLONIES In the last five months, Punjab got two applications, while Haryana received 93 under their respective affordable colony policy
CHANDIGARH: In a bid to control the mushrooming of illegal colonies in the state, efforts of the Punjab government have for long focused on bringing unauthorised colonies under the ambit of planned development.
It hopes that by offering amnesty schemes, growth of illegal colonies will be checked. For this, it has offered seven amnesty schemes in eight years to colonisers of such colonies.
While the number of illegal colonies getting legal status increased, at the same time, the number of unauthorised colonies also increased manifold.
In March this year, learning from the failure of policies for regularisation of illegal colonies in curbing the growth of illegal colonies, the state government introduced the Affordable Colony Policy (ACP).
The aim was to encourage colonisers to bring smaller-sized affordable plots under the legal ambit.
Illegal colonies mainly cater to budget and affordable housing segments, and ACP was seen as an attempt to offer incentives to colonisers to go for legalised colonies instead of unauthorised ones.
However, by the end of July, under the ACP, only one licence was issued in Phagwara, and one more application received in Ludhiana for creation of the affordable colony.
Also, the ACP is only for areas coming under the housing department. For the municipal areas, there is no affordable colony policy in the state as of now.
LESSONS FROM HARYANA
With the same aim of checking growth of illegal colonies, Haryana made a move earlier than its neighbouring state. It introduced an affordable colony policy, Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna (DDJAY) in 2016.
According to data available from Haryana Town and Country Planning (TCP) department, licences of around 130 colonies have already been approved. More than 133 applications are still under process. Most of the small and medium potential towns have benefited with the scheme with majority of applications coming from Karnal, Rohtak, Ambala and Bahadurgarh.
In addition, “Completion certificate for five colonies have been issued. In the last two years, around 2.5 lakh residential units have been created across the state under the policy so far,” says Jitender Sihag, chief town planner, Haryana.
Initially, the Haryana policy was intended only for low and medium potential towns, but in January the policy was extended to high potential towns also.
While in Punjab in the last five months only two applications were received with one approval granted, in the last six months since the extension of the DDJAY to high potential towns, Haryana TCP received 93 applications.
A retired Haryana town planner associated with the formulation of the DDJAY, on the condition of anonymity, says, “The gravity of illegal colonies problem is comparatively less in Haryana than Punjab, but, we can’t deny that there is a problem. We realised that regularising illegal colonies repeatedly will not solve the problem. We went into the reasons for growth of illegal colonies after discussing it with several stakeholders including colonisers. There is a demand for affordable housing in the state, and colonisers of illegal colonies fill in the supply where the legal ones can’t. Relaxing of norms for affordable colonies was the way to go.”
CONSTRUCTIVE COMPARISONS
“While Haryana affordable colony policy actually gives incentives in the form of cut in external development charges (EDC), changes of land use charges (CLU), etc, to colonisers to create affordable plots, the Punjab policy only does the lip service,” says Ludhiana-based Gurwinder Singh Lamba, general secretary, Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association.
The licence fee under Haryana policy in medium potential towns was reduced from ₹6.25 lakh per acre to ₹1 lakh per acre and from ₹1.25 lakh per acre to ₹10,000 per acre in low potential towns.
Under the Punjab policy, licence fee wasn’t reduced. Similarly, the CLU fee was waived off in Haryana, but not in Punjab policy.
Patiala-based Anil Chopra, chairman, confederation of real estate developers’ associations of India (CREDAI-PUNJAB), says, “EDC, CLU and other charges have been kept unchanged for legal colonies coming under affordable colony policy. But, in case of illegal colonies, regularisation charges/development charges are nearly one-tenth of the EDC, CLU, license charges, etc imposed on legal colonisers. It is a clear case of law-abiding developer being penalised at the cost of coloniser of illegal colonies.”
Significantly, the development cost in case of illegal colonies is to be borne by the state exchequer, but, in case of approved projects, it is the duty of the coloniser.
The upper cap on plot size in Haryana is 179 sq yard, where as in Punjab it is 125 sq yard. “By mandating that the average plot area in a colony has to be 100 sq yard, the Punjab government in effect is dissuading the coloniser from applying under the policy. Also, affordability in context of the size of the plot depends up on the location. What is affordable size in Ludhiana is different from what it is in Phagwara,” says Lamba. The Punjab policy also mandates 5% reservation in plots (100 sq yard upper size limit) for economically weaker sections of society, the Haryana policy doesn’t.
The Haryana policy is more comprehensive in terms of its applicability. It covers all of the state except for hyper potential towns of Gurugram and Panchkula.
The Punjab policy is not applicable within municipal areas, and covers only area falling under the special development authorities of housing department.