The Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab government on Friday announced several major initiatives, including an Amnesty scheme through a one-time settlement of interest to defaulter allottees of various urban authorities, to boost the real estate sector.The announcements came after a meeting of the Punjab Urban Planning & Development Authority, Department of Housing and Urban Development. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister, and attended, among others, by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.The meeting decided, in principle, to provide a one-time opportunity to defaulter allottees of all authorities, according to an official spokesperson. The rate of interest for settlement of all legal disputes involving property price payment has been finalised at 15% following the Chief Minister’s intervention, who directed the department to lower it further from the proposed 18%.The scheme would, however, be applicable only to those allottees who are defaulters for less than four years or whose penalty amount is less than 100% of the principal amount, the spokesperson said, giving details.The Chief Minister also soft launched the New Punjab Sehri Awas Yojana (PSAY) on the occasion.
The scheme, aimed at providing free or subsidized residential house to houseless urban poor, was given the go-ahead by the state cabinet on March 18 to implement a major poll promise of the Congress.Besides providing free housing to eligible houseless SC/BC urban families with an annual income less than Rs. 3 lacs in Phase 1 & with an annual income less than Rs. 5 lacs in Phase II, the scheme will provide subsidized housing to people in various categories, thus ensuring their social upliftment.The meeting, which followed up and reviewed the progress on various decisions taken at the last meeting, also approved lowering of the annual hike in reserved price, from 10% to 5%, through an amendment to the reserved price fixation policy in order to benefit urban populations.Thirty percent reservation to the Scheduled Caste category in allotment of property by PUDA and various Development Authorities, as per the decision taken by the Cabinet in its meeting held on March 18, was also discussed and approved, said the spokesperson. Priority will be given to women and senior citizens in this category.Another major initiative discussed at the meeting related to the development of satellite towns around major cities to ease urban pressure.
The Chief Minister suggested planned development of towns around key cities such as Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Jalandhar. A pilot project will soon be launched to study the feasibility of the proposal, which would encompass land acquisition in a manner that enables land owners to get residential and commercial allotments in the new developed satellite townships as compensation for pooling their land through official partners.Captain Amarinder also directed the department to make efforts to bring in a world-class science and technology university, focused on IT and Bio Technology, in IT City Mohali.Prominent amongst those present in the meeting included Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Tejveer Singh, Additional Chief Secretary Revenue KBS Sidhu, Additional Chief Secretary Housing and Urban Development Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary Local Government Satish Chandra, Secretary Rural Development & Panchayats Anurag Verma, Secretary PWD (B&R) Husan Lal besides Malwinder Singh as a special invitee from Patiala Development Authority also attended the meeting.