Panchkula residents will not bear land enhancement cost, announces Haryana CM

The Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran had last year asked several housing societies in Panchkula’s Sectors 23 to 28 to pay land enhancement cost, 20 years after the land that these were built on was initially acquired in 1992

Coming to the aid of thousands of residents of Sectors 23 to 28, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday announced that they will not bear the burden of land enhancement cost, running into hundreds of crores.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar also said an inquiry will be marked into the matter. (HT Photo)

While making the announcement in the Vidhan Sabha, Khattar also said that an inquiry will be marked into the matter. The chief minister’s statements came after the matter was raised in the assembly by JJP MLA from Narnaund, Ram Kumar Gautam.

The residents, most of them elderly with no source of income, had been spending sleepless nights since the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) asked several housing societies in Sectors 23 to 28 to pay land enhancement cost, 20 years after the land that these were built on was initially acquired in 1992.

Enhancement is the increase in compensation paid to a farmer/landowner for the acquisition of their land, which is decided by a court in case they are not satisfied with the price of land offered by the state government or its agency.

“In 1992, 44 acres were allotted to Sector 24. Out of these, 19 acres were saleable and other areas were common. But in 2012-13, the development authority, through an afterthought added 76 acres of Ghaggar land, 20 years after initial land acquisition, causing the land enhancement cost to increase manifold,” said Upender Pathak, general secretary of the Sector-24 resident welfare association.

He said residents had time and again requested the authorities to recalculate the cost after removing the additional land, so that they could deposit the enhanced amount to HSVP and avail of the last and final settlement scheme (LFSS) to avoid interest burden.

Pathak said currently, the amount calculated for Sector 24 alone was around ₹100 crore. “The residents cannot even think of paying this huge amount, which comes to around ₹20-25 lakh per flat owner,” he said.