Curation Team
PANCHKULA: Ahead of the coming MC elections, all the three colony rehabilitation agenda approved by the Panchkula municipal corporation in the last house meeting held six months ago have fallen flat.
Since the land belongs to the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) and the forest department, the MC has no say in it. No final approval was granted, and the departments concerned have to make a decision on it.
With much enthusiasm, MC mayor Kulbhushan Goyal had first in a press conference announced the proposal to regularise illegal colonies by allocating one-marla residential plots at 2004 collector rates to eligible families residing there for more than 20 years. The targeted colonies included Indira Colony, Rajiv Colony, Gandhi Colony, and Khadak Mangoli in the district.
The proposal was later passed in the MC house without any agenda set for its implementation.
Now, as per the October status report of the MC, the colonies mentioned in the proposal — Rajiv, Indira, and Khadak Mangoli — are situated on land belonging to the HSVP. Therefore, the process of allotting plots to the residents of these colonies is the responsibility of the authority concerned.
The report states, “Additionally, as per the directions of higher authorities, the survey work in (only) village Bhainsa Tibba (Gandhi Colony) was carried out by the employees of the municipal corporation, and the demarcation was conducted by the Patwari of Mauja Bhainsa Tibba in the presence of officials/employees from both the MC and the HSVP on Sept 10 and 11. Hence, further action in this matter is also to be undertaken by the HSVP.”
Another agenda that was cleared by the civic body was that of providing basic facilities to people in the unauthorised Manav Colony near Saketri.
However, six months later, the MC’s own status report states, “The MC wrote to the director, urban local bodies, dated May 24, 2023, seeking approval for a total of six colonies, including Manav Colony. In response, the director, ULB department, rejected the proposal, stating that the colonies do not meet the required norms as per govt regulations. Furthermore, it is noted that the area in question falls on land belonging to the HSVP. Therefore, any further action in this regard is to be taken by the authority.”
Similarly, a proposal passed in the last house to give a one-marla plot in Beed Ghaggar as per the “govt’s 20 years policy” also failed to meet its fate and ended up only as an unimplemented populous announcement. Now, its own status report states, “The village is situated on the forest department land. Therefore, any action in this regard is required to be taken by the forest department.”
