Providing a major relief to the urban citizens, Punjab local Bodies Department has decided to dispose of Change of land Use (ClU) cases within a fortnight.
“Commissioners of Municipal Corporations and Regional Deputy Directors have been directed to decide ClU cases within a period of fifteen days,” said Minister of local Bodies Chunni lal Bhagat, after having a high-level meeting with the senior officers of the department.
The decision may come as a relief for many as a large number of ClU cases has been lying pending with the Minister since long.
For quite some time, the Municipalities, despite not being authorised to allow ClU as per Section 2(m) of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, has been allowing change of land use.
However, Department of Housing and Urban Development, vide notification October 21, 2012, declared the commissioners of municipal corporations as competent authorities for issuing the ClU.
ClU is required when the piece of land is earmarked for some specific purpose, like a residential zone in the plan, but the landowner wanted to use it for some other purpose, like industrial or commercial purposes. The process of conversion involves the payment of conversion fee, and once a piece of land is converted, its primary character is changed.
Besides decision on ClU in the meeting, the Minister also reviewed the progress of the Solid Waste Project. “The state has been divided into eight clusters for Municipal Solid Waste processing plants. In the first phase, door-to-door collection of solid waste and its transportation to dumping sites has started in four clusters —Jalandhar, ludhiana, Ferozepur, and Bathinda,” said Bhagat.
He added that in the second phase, which has been taken up simultaneously, the processing plants of solid waste would be established by next year in all eight clusters.