The business of building illegal colonies has seen a rise throughout the Covid pandemic, with data from the last 11 months revealing that more than 500 illegal colonies have been set up in Haryana. The issue has raised questions on the working of concerned departments.
The data pertaining to the same was presented in a recent Assembly session after legislators of the main opposition party, Congress, sought the information. «The coming of illegal colonies into existence at such a large scale is a matter of serious concern and should be taken into consideration with immediate effect,” said Congress legislator BB Batra, adding that the government is required to come up with a foolproof strategy so that stern action can be taken against those breaching the norms.
A CAG report brought to a recent Assembly session also addressed this issue. The development of 510 illegal colonies — an average of 46 colonies per month — took place between February 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021. The report also mentioned a string of other issues, including not charging fees for the development of colonies and providing permission for Change of Land Use, putting aside all rules.
Taking action against the ones developing the illegal colonies, the state government has filed a total of 213 FIRs. Apart from this, a total of 572 show cause notices have been issued.
A glance at the last three years’ data shows that 49,917 deeds were registered in terms of unauthorised sale executed in relation to unauthorised and unapproved colonies during the period starting from 2017 to October 2020, which stands in violation of Section 7-A of the Haryana Urban Development Regulation Act. 1975. A total of 1127 FIRs were also registered during the above time period.