What’s new in Punjab’s regularisation policy
MOHALI: More than two weeks after the Punjab cabinet gave a green signal to the regularisation policy for illegal colonies, the state government on Thursday notified it.
This is the second such policy this year in seven months.
The new policy is not only different from the one notified in April but also from previous five policies in major aspects.
Giving open-ended timeline to the owners of plots in illegal colonies, the new policy, unlike the previous ones, does not stipulate time-bound regularisation of the plots. The owners can apply for regularisation of their plots at any time of their choice.
NOW, APPLY WITH SALE AGREEMENT
Now, a plot owner and the coloniser of an illegal colony can apply for regularisation on the basis of sale agreement. In the April policy, it was on the basis of sale deed.
The new policy gives the coloniser four months time to apply for the regularisation from the date of notification of this policy (October 18). The coloniser will have to submit sale agreement or power of attorney as the proof of sale of plots rather than sale deeds.
The coloniser will be given provisional regularisation certificate with a condition that he/ she will submit the registered sale deeds of plots within one year from the date of the issue of the provisional certificate.
In case of regularisation of plots, if any plot owner submits the regularisation application on the basis of sale agreement, he/ she will have to submit the registered sale deed within three months. The application submission for regularisation of plots is not time-bound.
INDEPENDENT PROCESS
The April policy had made regularisation of illegal colonies a prerequisite for the regularisation of any plot in their limits. The new policy has, however, made regularisation of the colonies and the plots independent of each other alike other previous policies.
With four month window for submission of applications for colony regularisation and openended time for plots, real estate experts opine that like previous policies, most colonisers will give a miss to the regularisation opportunity also.
“Colonisers will only get plots regularised based on the sale agreements. Though the state government is categorically stating that there will be no extensions this time around but based on earlier experiences, colonisers strongly expect to extend deadlines or bring another regularisation policy in a couple of years,” said a senior housing department official on the condition of anonymity. In case of the applications for regularisation of plots, the new policy doesn’t specify the year in which its sale agreement was signed.
There have been instances when plots were regularised based on sale agreements dating back to seven-eight years under the previous policies.
“The government should also make regularisation of plots on the basis of sale agreements a time-bound affair with the Google image being made mandatory, while in case of registered sale deeds, unlimited time could have been given.
There is concern that the policy does not develop into a policy for promoting illegal colonies,” said the official.
THE NEW POLICY DOES NOT STIPULATE TIMEBOUND REGULARISATION OF THE PLOTS