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The Hindu
3 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Puducherry rolls out one-time regularisation scheme for unauthorised constructions
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Monday formally launched the one-time regularisation scheme for unauthorised constructions and plan violations. The scheme was inaugurated at a function organised in the Chief Minister's chamber in the Legislative Assembly in the presence of Speaker R. Selvam, Public Works Minister K. Lakshminarayanan and officials from the Puducherry Planning Authority and the Town and Country Planning Department. 'The Puducherry One-Time Regularization Scheme for the unpermitted constructions and deviations 2025' will be applicable to buildings constructed and roofed/floored between May 1, 1987 and July 16, 2025 in all regions of Puducherry. Applications for regularisation should be submitted only online and within a period of one year from the date of publication of the notification. Along with the required fees, building plan and certificates/permits documents should be submitted as per the checklist attached with the application, a press note said. A dedicated software module, the Online Building Permission System (OBPS), has been designed by National Informatics Centre in Puducherry to implement the scheme. This will prevent disconnection of electricity, water and sewage facilities, denial of permission to register a building plot, sealing and demolition of a building that violates building regulations. The application fee for residential building is ₹5000 and ₹10,000 for other than residential building. A non-refundable scrutiny fees applies at the rate of ₹20/- per sq.m for residential building and ₹50 per sq.m for other than residential building. The regularisation charges for unauthorised deviated construction for residential building is ₹500 per sq.m, ₹750 per sq.m for mixed use building and special building and ₹1000 per sq.m for multi-storeyed buildings. Government buildings will be exempted from payment of regularisation charges. However, Government aided schools will have to pay 50% of regularisation charges for mixed use building and special building at the rate of ₹750 per sq.m and in the case of multi-storeyed buildings at the rate of ₹1000 per sq.m as applicable. The amnesty scheme will not be applicable in specific cases where the applicant does not have title deed of land or the property, occupies encroached government land or abuts areas designated for development projects. The details of the Regularization Scheme may be accessed from the website of Town and Country Planning Department, Puducherry ( or the website of Puducherry Planning Authority, Puducherry (

The Hindu
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Puducherry government notifies one-time regularisation scheme for unauthorised structures
The Puducherry government has notified a scheme to regularise unauthorised buildings and structures that were built in deviation of the plan approved by the authorities as a one-time measure after paying a fee. The scheme allows owners of unauthorised buildings and those constructed in deviation of the sanctioned plan to register with Town and Country Planning Department by paying a non-refundable application fee of ₹5,000 for residential buildings and ₹10,000 for other structures. Also, a scrutiny fee at the rate of ₹20 per square metre for residential buildings and ₹50 per square metre for applications other than residential buildings has to be paid in the name of the Member Secretary of the concerned Planning Authority of the Union Territory, the notification said. The application should have details, such as floor plans, elevations, and sections of the buildings constructed, the site plan, building plan, and wherever applicable, the service and parking plans as provided in the Puducherry Building Byelaws and Zoning Regulations and specifications. The Planning Authority Committee before allowing the owner to pay the fine would examine the application to ascertain whether minimum safety and security provisions in the buildings have been provided, such as clearance and overhead electric lines, availability of minimum width of road, parking facilities, facilities for persons with disabilities, fire escape staircase, lift, provisions for waste disposal, solar-assisted water heating and lighting systems and other provisions in the building bye-laws holding serious safety and security concerns, the notification said. While the government buildings were exempted from payment of the one-time fee, owners of residential buildings would have to pay ₹500 per square metre and mixed use buildings/special buildings have to remit ₹750 per square metre as regularisation charges. The fee for multi-storey buildings has been fixed at ₹1,000 per square metre, the notification said. According to a senior official, there are thousands of unauthorised structures and those constructed by violating the approved plan. The entire fee collected as a one-time charge would be parked in a corpus fund and would be used for infrastructure development in the Union Territory, he said. The concerned planning authority would serve notice to all the owners of unauthorised buildings or buildings with deviations from the approved plan within a period of six months from the notification of the scheme. The scheme has been notified on July 16, the official said.


Indian Express
12-07-2025
- Indian Express
‘Duped' with CM's forged letter, fake RERA approvals, Gurugram residents lodge FIRs against real-estate developers, Sohna tehsildar and patwari; probe on
A tehsildar and a patwari posted in Gurugram and six others, including a real-estate developer company, were booked on Thursday on charges of corruption, cheating and forgery, besides various other provisions punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly duping people on the pretext of selling parcels of land in the name of the Haryana government's policy of promoting 'organic farming'. The parcels of land are located in Karnki and Tolni villages in Sohna tehsil of Gurugram district — around 11 km from the district headquarters. The matter dates back to 2020-2021 when the accused allegedly started publicising these parcels of land in the name of developing farmhouses/ residential colonies. The complainants in the two FIRs, Survina Bhalla (80) and Amit Banga (58), alleged that they were duped by the accused, who showed them forged letters of 'Hon'ble Haryana CM, forged approvals by the Town and Country Planning Department and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)'. The complainants alleged that 'the accused appeared very wealthy, always used to come in Mercedes cars with PSO [Personal Security Officer], and mostly used to call on WhatsApp, stating they have meetings with ministers/ senior officials'. The FIRs have been registered against real-estate developer company M/s Goldkist Developers Pvt Ltd, its director Raj Bala and her husband Hari Das Gupta, its other director Braham Parkash Aggarwal, tehsildar Shikha Garg, patwari Asgar and others, including Balwan Singh and Rajesh Kumar Gupta. The two FIRs, No. 133 and 134, were registered on Thursday at Gurugram's DLF-II police station, following the orders by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Gurugram) Ramesh Chander, and are currently under investigation. 'Orders were received from the Hon'ble ACJM's court on July 8, and we registered FIRs. Further investigation is going on,' one of the investigating police officers said. According to both FIRs, which contents are similar, the complainants alleged that they were shown parcels of land for constructing farmhouses/ houses by the accused, who claimed to have got all the requisite approvals of 'Haryana's Director (Town and Country Planning), RERA, and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Haryana'. While Bhalla alleged that she 'paid Rs 1.30 crore initially, spent over Rs 2 crore on levelling the land and construction, but the accused subsequently demanded another Rs 5 crore and then Rs 25 crore for getting her all the requisite approvals'. Banga alleged that he had paid Rs 2.94 crore to the accused. The complainants alleged that it was only after they had made the payments and got the sale deeds registered in their names, which were signed by the tehsildar and the patwari, that they started construction work on their respective parcels of land. However, they were left shocked when, in July 2021, officials of the District Town Planner (Enforcement) came to their sites and started demolishing their structures with JCB machines. After the registry of the land, for which he also took possession and constructed the boundary walls, Banga said in his complaint, which also forms part of the FIR, 'I started making plans for our dream house to be built and also engaged an architect and construction company for the same. However, on July 6, 2021, officials of the District Town Planner (Enforcement) came to the project with JCBs and demolished the boundary walls of all the farm lands. When we tried to stop the government authorities, we were told by them [officials] that the accused persons did not have any approvals from the DTCP or the RERA and that we had been cheated of our hard-earned money. When I showed the printed Brochures, papers and FAQ to the enforcement authorities, they informed me that all these documents were forged and fabricated, and we became victims of a planned cheating scheme floated by the accused persons in conspiracy with each other.' When the complainants approached the tehsildar and patwari, both told them that they registered the sale deeds as per the norms. However, the complainants allege that both revenue department officials acted in connivance with the other accused persons.


Indian Express
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
High Court notice to Goa govt over fees waved for land zone corrections
The High Court of Bombay at Goa Thursday issued notice to the state government, Secretary Town and Country Planning department, Town and Country Planning Department, Directorate of Vigilance and former chief town planner in a petition seeking directions to the authorities to recover the fees allegedly 'illegally waived' under a contentious provision of the Goa Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act. According to the petitioner, activist Swapnesh Sherlekar, the fees for correction of certain land zones was illegally waived under section 17 (2) of the Goa Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act on the 'specious' ground that 'deletion of proposed road fee is not applicable'. The section 17(2), which was introduced through an amendment to the TCP Act and notified in 2023, allows the conversion of privately owned plots in Goa's Regional Plan 2021, based on individual applications from such parties to 'correct inadvertent errors' and 'rectify inconsistent or incoherent zoning'. The government notified the fees for correction of zones under section 17 (2) of the Act on March 16, 2023. Subsequently, the revised fee for zone changes was notified through the supplement official gazette on March 28 last year. The HC read down the section in March this year. The petition states in the list of cases considered for correction of zone under section 17 (2) of the Act, several entries contained a notation 'deletion of proposed road fee not applicable' without any statutory basis for such exemption. The petition stated that among such cases were properties belonging to TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane, who is also a respondent in the petition, alleging that he 'benefited from an unauthorized exemption of fees'. The petition said there are 'numerous' cases of deletion of proposed roads since the Act was notified, which require scrutiny for similar unauthorised exemptions. It further said that there is no provision in the TCP Act or any rules, regulations or notifications thereunder that provide exemption of fees for deletion of proposed roads under section 17 (2) of the Act. The petition said the respondent authorities have acted with 'manifest arbitrariness, mala fide and abuse of power in exempting certain applications from payment of statutory fees without any legal basis or justification.' The petition further claimed that the respondent authorities have failed to discharge their duties in accordance with law and have instead acted in a manner that suggests collusion to confer undue benefit on certain individuals at the expense of the public exchequer. On Thursday, the High Court heard the submissions of the petitioners. In the order, the court said: 'At this stage, we deem it appropriate to issue notice to respondent 1 to 4 as well as respondent 6 in the capacity of chief town planner (planning)…' The Court also directed the respondents to file an affidavit in response within three weeks. The court said it has 'noted the specific pleadings in the petition, which revolve around the properties' belonging to Rane, but did not issue a notice to him.


The Star
12-06-2025
- The Star
Officer charged over RM19,100 false claim
KOTA KINABALU: A 46-year-old town planning officer pleaded not guilty to a charge of submitting a false claim amounting to RM19,100 for services that were allegedly never rendered. Nazri Hamburg, an officer with the state Town and Country Planning Department, is charged under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009. According to the charge, Nazri is accused of knowingly submitting a false document, a claim form dated June 12, 2017, to a finance administrative assistant in his department. The claim allegedly included a bill, No. 171021 dated May 12, 2017, for the delivery of a Proton Saga BLM and a Toyota Hilux Vigo to Papar, along with manpower for moving goods, which totalled RM19,100. If convicted, Nazri faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of not less than five times the value of the false claim or RM10,000, whichever is higher, under Section 24(2) of the same Act. Sessions judge Jason Juga, sitting in the Special Corruption Court here, allowed bail at RM10,000, with RM5,000 to be deposited and the remaining RM5,000 without deposit. One local surety was required. Nazri was also ordered to report to the MACC office every two months pending the disposal of the case. The case will be mentioned again on July 10.