Ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls due next year, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government has decided to regularise 450 unauthorised colonies situated beyond the municipal limits, falling under the purview of the Town and Country Planning Department.
Addressing a press conference, the chief minister said his government was also considering regularisation of 1,856 more unauthorised colonies.
He said of the total 450 colonies that have been decided to be regularised include 239 colonies falling under the jurisdiction of the Town and Country Planning Department, and 211 colonies of the Urban Local Bodies Department.
With this addition, a cumulative total of 1135 unauthorised colonies will have been regularized from the year 2014 up to the present, Khattar said. He said that a provision of Rs 500 Crore has been made for basic development works in such colonies.
“The development works of the colonies which fall outside the municipality area will be done by the Haryana Rural Development Authority. The development work of the colonies located within the municipality will be done by the concerned municipality,” the CM said.
Giving information about district-wise colonies, the CM said with the regularisation of 92 colonies Yamunanagar is on the top followed by Faridabad where 59 colonies have been regularised today.
Similarly, 16 colonies have been regularized in Fatehabad, 3 in Gurugram, 20 in Hisar, 25 in Jhajjar, 30 in Kaithal, 2 in Karnal, 25 in Kurukshetra, 35 in Nuh, 31 in Palwal, 22 in Panipat, 14 in Rewari, 32 in Rohtak, 9 in Sirsa, and 35 in Sonipat.
The CM said 1856 unauthorized colonies are currently under consideration for regularization. Among these, 727 colonies fall under the jurisdiction of the Town and Country Planning Department, while 1129 colonies are under the Urban Local Department. The regularization process will commence once the specified criteria are met within these colonies.
Khattar said during its ten-year tenure, the Congress had regularised 874 unauthorised colonies. However, the present government has taken a different approach, focusing on citizen convenience by relaxing the norms for regularisation.
“While focusing on citizen convenience and aiming to improve the living conditions of those residing in these colonies, we reduced the requirements for approach road and internal road widths for regularization eligibility. Under the new norms, colonies with an approach road width of 6 meters or more, and internal roads width of 3 meters or more, are now eligible for regularization,” he added.
Khattar said residents living in the unauthorized colonies beyond municipal limits have long been devoid of essential amenities and while acknowledging these long pending difficulties the government has undertaken the task of regularising these colonies.
“We have decided to regularise isolated colonies having a minimum area of two acres. This move is anticipated to bring about a transformative change in the lives of the residents residing in these areas,” he said.
He said in an effort to streamline the process and acknowledge the challenges posed by delays in forming registered Citizen Welfare Committees, the government has decided to consider applications submitted not only by registered Citizen Welfare Committees but also by the developers or a minimum of five colony residents.