Bill regularising illegal constructions before Dec 2015 passed

The Maharashtra Assembly today passed a bill amending the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 to regularise illegal constructions built before December 31, 2015 on the payment of penalty.
As per the amendment, such structures will be declared as compounded structures after payment of compounding charges, infrastructure charges and premium by the owner and occupier.
The amendment also did away with the previous sanction for prosecution in cases where unauthorised development has been carried out or is being carried out on the plot having an area of more than 1,000 square metres.
The recommendation for regularisation of unauthorised constructions in urban areas was given by a committee headed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner.

Accordingly, the government had taken a decision to regularise unauthorised development but the policy was challenged in the court through a PIL.
The court declined permission to implement the policy stating that the provisions of MRTP Act provided for regularising unauthorised developments.
The government decided to amend the Act to enable regularising unauthorised developments carried out on or before December 31, 2015 and which are in conformity with the Development Control Regulations (DCR).