Pb govt working on law to regularise illegal colonies

The Punjab government is working towards a law to regularise illegal colonies and transfer ownership rights to the occupants.
The state Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today directed that a committee headed by the state chief secretary be set up to formulate a legislation for regularising illegal colonies and transfer of ownership rights to the occupants, an official spokesperson said.
The state government has also initiated the initiated the process of allotting free houses for the homeless poor, as promised in the Congress poll manifesto, they added.
The chief minister also directed the Town Planning Department to complete work on preparing Master Plans of all the cities in the state by the end of the current financial year, an official spokesperson said.

A meeting here decided on a series of measures, including allotment of project-based No Due Certificate (NDC) to promoters, in order to ease the real estate business in the state, the spokesperson added.
The NDC will now be valid for three months, to be taken by the department on the date of application for a particular service rather than as on date of delivery of service.

In another decision, the chief minister approved the reduction of transfer fee levied by Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) from 2.5 to 2 per cent till March 31, 2018.
Chairing a review meeting of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Captain Amarinder directed the concerned officials to ensure completion of the master plans within the stipulated time-frame by outsourcing the necessary planning work, if need be.

On the issue of regularisation of the illegal colonies, it was decided to set up a committee under the Chief Secretary to formulate the necessary legislation for their regularisation and grant of ownership rights to the occupants.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal stressed the need to ensure implementation of master plans in all the cities of Punjab, which currently has only 43 cities covered by master plans.
The Chief Minister ordered work on the master plans to be take up on priority, with all master plans to be made available online.
A mobile app has also been launched, with effect from today, to facilitate the online procurement of property records by the allottees.

The application would be extended later to cover e-payment services, such as making payments towards the allotted sites, payment user charges, viewing availability of sites with different authorities, the spokesman said.
The Chief Minister directed the department to initiate the process of identification and scrutiny of beneficiaries for free houses under the Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana.