Illegal will be legal soon in Punjab. Brushing aside the objections raised by the Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Council of Ministers on Monday approved a policy built virtually to favour the colonizers or builders who had set unauthorized colonies giving them the “last one chance”.

In Punjab, there are about 13,000 illegal colonies, said the state Housing and Urban Development Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa after the meeting.

As per the policy, the builders will be given four-month’s time to apply for regularization of their colonies developed before March 19, 2018, and that too at lower rates. What is more! The cases registered against such colonizers would be withdrawn after they pay the amount to register their colonies.

Notably, Sidhu has launched a drive to crack a whip against the illegal colonies or structures, starting from Jalandhar, which attracted lot of criticism not only from the colonizers, but also from within his own party.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh set up a group of Ministers to formulate the policy, which includes Sidhu, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sunder Sham Arora, and Vijay Inder Singla.

Talking about the policy, Bajwa said that it is aimed at curbing the mushroom growth of unplanned and haphazard constructions across the state.

As per the policy, any developer, Resident Welfare Association (RWA) or Cooperative Society can apply for regularization of unauthorized colonies. In case of plots, compounding of colony is not mandatory for regularization of plots, and the plot owners can directly apply for regularization.

The policy would be applicable to the entire state, including the municipal limits falling under the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952.