Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Tuesday told the State Assembly that rules would be tweaked and made people-friendly to facilitate the process of regularising illegal colonies in the State.
Notably, there are a number of unauthorised colonies developed in Bhopal in past two decades and the residents time and again raised the demand for regularising such colonies. Earlier, the State Government had framed a rule that by depositing 50 per cent of the development charges, the individual houses could be regularised.
However, while replying to a query, Chouhan told the assembly, “We are going to tweak the rules and make them people-friendly for regularising the illegal colonies.” The rule to collect 50 per cent development charges from the residents of illegal colonies to regularise their tenements by upgrading infrastructure, was burdening occupants of such localities, he said.
“The remaining 50 per cent expenditure for regularising colonies was borne by civic bodies and the State government,” he said.
The Government now plans to collect only 20 per cent development charges from the occupants for regularising their localities, he added.
Sometimes, people spend their hard-earned money not knowing the locality where they were putting in their capital was illegal, he said. “Therefore, we are going to make the rules more people-friendly to regularise the illegal colonies,” he added.
However, the Chief Minister also made it clear that the state government was working towards ensuring that no new illegal colonies come up in the state.
The Chief Minister gave this assurance in response to a question raised by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member Usha Choudhary, who sought to know the status of regularising some 138 illegal colonies in Satna district where she belongs. In July this year, Chouhan had announced that illegal colonies in Satna would be regularised.