Legit status brings curbs on sale of property

The government?s decision to legitimise 1500 unauthorised colonies in the city has made sale and purchase of property in the colonies more difficult, reports Amitabh Shukla.

The government’s decision to legitimise 1500 unauthorised colonies in the city has made sale and purchase of property in the colonies more difficult.

HT Image

There are strict instructions to scrutinise any General Power of Attorney (GPA) issued in these colonies before the sub-registrar gives his nod to go ahead with the deed.

Moreover, any GPA for property on government land in these colonies has been stopped. Sale deeds were already banned.

The decisions will go a long way in regulating property transaction in 1,539 unauthorised colonies. The move to ban GPA follows a meeting with the monitoring committee last month.

The Monitoring Committee directed the Divisional Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioners to scrutinise the GPA in these colonies and deny any execution in over 400 unauthorised colonies on government land.

“This was aimed to check encroachment on government land and also to let the people in these colonies know that they cannot get away with illegal transactions for long,” said an official.

“We are extremely careful now. We are not permitting any GPA on unauthorised colonies on government land. The land record and its status is verified before executing any deed,” said a sub-registrar on condition of anonymity.

The move comes in the wake of the announcement of the Union urban development ministry that the 1539 unauthorised colonies in the city — home to a population of nearly 35 lakh people— would be regularised.

Development and Revenue Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan admitted that the sub-registrars were not executing GPA in unauthorised colonies on government land.

“We would soon bring a Cabinet note after examining all aspects of GPA and sale deeds in the unauthorised colonies,” he said.

Delhi Urban Development Minister AK Walia, however, has sought a clarification from the UDM on the definition of “government land”.

In some colonies, only the notification for land acquisition was issued, in some colonies land was acquired but problems remained on compensation, in others court cases were pending.

“We have asked the UDM for guidelines on what is government land,” said Walia.

Officials said that in regularising unauthorised colonies, the colonies located on government land posed a tricky issue.

“We cannot simply regularise these colonies without charging land rates and penalty as this would give a wrong message to the encroachers on public land,” said a senior official.

Email Amitabh Shukla: ashukla@hindustantimes.com