Out of 1,300 applications, govt gives approval to regularise 845 colonies

The Haryana government has decided to regularise 845 colonies in the state after it received 1,300 applications for regularization of colonies.

These colonies shall be declared as areas lacking civic amenities and infrastructure after following due process of law on fulfilling the criteria as stated vide letter dated February 14, 2020.

Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Kamal Gupta said: “During the ongoing budget session, the state government has decided to regularise 845 colonies falling within the limits of municipalities with less civic amenities and infrastructure. For this, applications were invited from the Residents’ Welfare Associations and developers on the portal by the Town and Country Planning Department.”

He was replying to a question during the Question Hour in the budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha here on Monday.

A notification was issued on September 10, 2021, to amend the Haryana Management of Municipal Areas (Special Provisions) Act, 2016 which lacks civic amenities and infrastructure. According to the amendment, the condition of construction work on 50 percent of the plots in the new colony before March 31, 2015 has been removed.

Further, all the colonies have been divided into category-wise groups, which include colonies with built up area up to 25 percent, between 25 and 50 percent, between 50 and 75 percent and colonies with more than 75 percent built up area.

Congress MLA Surendra Panwar enquired whether any proposal to replace 30 to 40 old sewer and drinking water lines in Sonipat Municipal Corporation is under consideration of the government. In response, he was told that that there is a proposal to replace about 14 KM old sewer line and 8.7 KM trunk sewer line falling in Municipal Corporation Sonipat under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 1.0 Scheme.

There is no norm to replace a sewer or water pipeline of 30 to 40 years old. Rather the pipeline is replaced only if the capacity is inadequate or the pipeline is not working efficiently due to various reasons. Such pipelines would be replaced irrespective of the life of the pipeline. The works of replacement of old sewer pipeline allotted under AMRUT 1.0 are likely to be completed and commissioned by June 30.

Besides, a provision has been made to lay 68 km of new sewer line in Municipal Corporation Sonipat under AMRUT-I scheme, out of which 22.70 km of old sewer line and trunk sewer line will be replaced. So far 68 km of new sewer line has been laid and 20.94 km of sewer line has been replaced.