Town and Country Planning (amendment) Bill introduced in Vidhan Sabha

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma Wednesday introduced the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill seeking to regularise illegal constructions "as is where is" basis.

The Bill provides for regularisation of illegal constructions in Municipal and planning areas in the state even in the cases in which building plans have not been approved at all.

However, there would be no exemption for regularisation of constructions in green areas and heritage areas, encroached lands and pockets kept for parks, sewerage or other facilities and the parking converted into other use would not be regularised except in cases where alternate equivalent and excess space is available for parking.

The regularisation fee would be very nominal, Rs 800 per square mts would be charged in case of deviation from building plan within Municipal areas and the same would be half in case buildings outside municipal areas.

In case no permission had been taken for development, the regularisation fee would be Rs 1200 per sq mts in Municipal areas and Rs 600 per sq mts in areas outside the Municipal limits.

The regularisation fee would be doubled in case of commercial, hotel, tourism, industrial or other use.

Introducing the Bill, Urban Development minister said that the government had tried to address the issue of regularisation of unauthorised building from constructions raised in violation of the Act by bringing retention policies from time to time.

Under the said retention policies/guidelines, 8198 cases of unauthorised construction were received out of which 2108 were retained and 6090 are yet to be regularised and at present there were 13,000 unauthorised buildings upto March 2016 and demolition of such a large number of unauthorised constructions was neither feasible nor desirable as it would result in undue harm to owners and occupants.