CHANDIGARH: With an eye on the parliamentary and state Assembly elections next year, the Manohar Lal Khattar government has decided to regularise 131 illegal colonies across seven districts of Haryana.
Faridabad in the National Capital Region (NCR) will account for nearly half the colonies to be regularised (59), followed by Kaithal (30), Hisar (16), Fatehabad (10), Rohtak (9), Yamunanagar (4) and Gurugram (3).
While issuing a notification to this effect, Vikas Gupta, Commissioner and Secretary of the Urban Local Bodies Department, however, clarified that industrial, institutional and uses other than residential would not be considered for regularisation till they seek permission for residential use.
Under the Haryana Management of Civic Amenities and Infrastructure Deficient Municipal Area (Special Provisions) Act, 2016, which was amended in 2021, the Haryana Government declared illegal colonies as “amenities and infrastructure deficient areas”.
Under the Act, construction must have taken place on more than 50 per cent of the plots to be considered for the areas to be declared as “amenities and infrastructure deficient”.
After the passage of the amended Act in 2021, the state government set in motion the regularisation process. After a survey, the municipalities concerned passed a resolution declaring certain colonies as “amenities and infrastructure deficient”.
Later, the Divisional Commissioners concerned (in case of municipal corporations) and District Municipal Commissioner (in case of other municipalities) recommended their cases for regularisation to the state government.
The elected representatives had been raising the issue of regularisation of illegal colonies both inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha for long. With the state going to the poll next year, the state government finally decided to regularise the illegal colonies.