With an eye on the State Assembly elections in 2024, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday announced that the Government has decided to regularise 450 unauthorised colonies in 16 districts of the State, including those located beyond municipal corporation/council limits and falling under the jurisdiction of the town and country planning department.
Addressing a press conference, Khattar said of the total 450 colonies that would be regularised included 239 colonies falling under the jurisdiction of the Town and Country Planning Department, and 211 colonies of the Urban Local Bodies Department. With this, a total of 1,135 unauthorized colonies would have been regularised from 2014 onwards.
Sharing the state's future plans regarding unauthorised colonies, Khattar said a total of 1,856 unauthorised colonies are currently under consideration for regularisation. Among these, 727 colonies fall under the jurisdiction of the Town and Country Planning Department, while 1129 colonies are under the Urban Local Department. The regularisation process would start once the specified criteria were met within these colonies, he added.
Khattar further said the Member Secretary (Convener) of the District Town Planning (DTP) Committee in the district concerned is empowered to oversee the regularisation of colonies situated outside municipal areas. To initiate the regularization process, interested parties must submit their applications to the Convener, who will then forward these applications to the District-Level Scrutiny Committee (DLSC) for review.
Giving information about district-wise colonies, the Chief Minister said that with the regularization of 92 colonies Yamunanagar is on the top followed by Faridabad where 59 colonies have been regularized today. Similarly, 16 colonies have been regularized in Fatehabad, 3 in Gurugram, 20 in Hisar, 25 in Jhajjar, 30 in Kaithal, 2 in Karnal, 25 in Kurukshetra, 35 in Nuh, 31 in Palwal, 22 in Panipat, 14 in Rewari, 32 in Rohtak, 9 in Sirsa, and 35 in Sonipat.
The Chief Minister while highlighting a significant disparity in the regularization of unauthorized colonies between the present state government and Congress said that the Congress government, during its ten-year tenure, had regularized a substantial 874 unauthorized colonies. However, the present government has taken a different approach, focusing on citizen convenience by relaxing the norms for regularization. “While focusing on citizen convenience and aiming to improve the living conditions of those residing in these colonies, we reduced the requirements for approach road and internal road widths for regularization eligibility. Under the new norms, colonies with an approach road width of 6 meters or more, and internal roads width of 3 meters or more, are now eligible for regularization,” said Khattar.
He said that the residents living in the unauthorized colonies beyond municipal limits have long been devoid of essential amenities and while acknowledging these long pending difficulties the government has undertaken the task of regularizing these colonies. “We have decided to regularize isolated colonies having a minimum area of 2 acres. This move is anticipated to bring about a transformative change in the lives of the residents residing in these areas,” said Khattar.
Investigation into Nuh violence going on no culprit will be spared, says Khattar
The Haryana Chief Minister on Thursday asserted that investigations into the Nuh violence are going on and said no culprit will be spared.
Talking to reporters, Khattar said police are conducting investigations and taking action, adding no culprit will be spared. When asked about the VHP planning to resume the Braj Mandal Yatra on August 28 and whether his government has given permission, Khattar said he has no such intimation and will speak only when such a situation arises.
He had recently said the attack on the yatra on July 31 in Nuh seems to be part of a big conspiracy. Asked about it, he said the conspiracy angle has come to the fore during the preliminary investigation.
"Since all these things are under investigation, at this stage it won't be appropriate to say anything more," he added. To another question if there were any intelligence inputs ahead of the yatra suggesting that this kind of situation was building up in Nuh, Khattar said all these things are being probed. "To make a comment at this stage won't be appropriate. If anything is said at this stage and something else crops up during investigation, then you (media) only will raise questions," he said.
On khap panchayats asking the government to amend the Hindu Marriage Act prohibiting same 'gotra' marriages and whether the state has started any process in this regard, Khattar said this issue does not pertain to state government but the Centre.