Jharkhand prepares draft plan to regularize unauthorized residential buildings

Jharkhand prepares draft plan to regularize unauthorized residential buildings

The Jharkhand Urban Development and Housing Department has prepared a draft plan to regularize unauthorized residential buildings which were constructed before December 31, 2019 in urban areas of the state, an official said on Sunday. To make this plan simple and effective, the department has sought suggestions and feedback from people on this for one month, an official statement said.

“Chief minister Hemant Soren as minister of the department has given his nod to the ‘Plan-2022’ to regularize the unauthorized residential building in urban areas. The process of giving benefit of it to the people will be initiated soon,” the statement said.

Earlier, the government had introduced the Jharkhand Regularization of Unauthorized\Deviated Constructions through Regularization Fee in Urban Areas Act, 2011, to regularize the unauthorized constructions by realizing a certain fee.

However, it received a very lukewarm response from citizens. In Ranchi, merely 893 applications had been received by the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) in the period of six months from February 8 to August 8, 2012 that had been given to the city residents for regularization of their houses.

A survey of RMC had then found that out of 1.96 houses in the state capital, only 40,000 houses were authorized. According to a rough estimation of urban development department, number of unauthorized constructions will be around seven lakh in state.

Thereafter, a ‘Scheme to Regularize Unauthorized Constructions, 2019’ was notified by the state government. However, various bodies, authorities and organizations raised objections saying this scheme is also not effective in providing relief to the general public due to various reasons.

In view of above mentioned points, the government felt that a fresh action is needed once again to regularize the unauthorized constructions by keeping it within the ambit of structural stability and planning criteria.

The state government is preparing a plan to regularize unauthorized construction by using the power given under Section 590 (1) and co-read Section-434 of the Jharkhand Municipal Act 2011. Under the scheme, residential and non-residential buildings constructed before December 31, 2019 will be regularized.

Under the proposed plan, the height of the building can be up to 15 metres but the structure should be of ground + 3 storeys (G+3) only.

Separate charges have been proposed for residential and non-residential buildings. In Nagar Panchayat areas, the fee for regularization of residential constructions will be Rs 50 per sqm and Rs 75 per sqm for non-residential buildings.

In Municipal Council area, Rs 75 per sqm decided for residential and Rs 100 per sqm for non-residential constructions. Similarly, in the Municipal Corporation/ Development Authority/ IADA/ NAC/ Municipality area, the fee for regularization has been decided Rs 100 per sqm for residential and Rs 150 per sqm for non-residential constructions.