ANALYSIS:UNAUTHORIZED COLONIES- By Richa Bohra

INTRODUCTION

India by 1980s was having the world’s lowest percentage of affordable housing. Because of these ineffective land reforms and rent control policies in 1950s, the fixing of the building heights and the ceiling restrictions have created the problem of overcrowding and lack of the urban space in the India. These laws provided help to these illegal housing people, the effects of these acts were totally opposite of the act and favored to such interest groups. Overpopulation along with non-availability of affordable housing lead to more and more development of these illegal housing, as these houses though constructed illegally but they provide a house to the people and that to at low cost which they could afford in there budget. These illegal buildings are created very quickly which therefore meet the demands of people who in search of jobs come to metropolitan cities, a lot of builders not even follow proper building laws and practices nor proper safety measures were followed nor the quality of material used by them was of proper standard due to these reasons these buildings constructed are not at all safe for its residents. If we see there are so many accidents occurred so many buildings collapsed such as in 2013 in Thane Building collapse which caused death of 72 people, in 2010 Delhi Building Collapse were around 62 plus people died, these accidents are not at all rare in India they are very common, just to save the cost of construction and to earn more and more of profits these builders use low quality of material, they just cut the cost of construction, no safety measures, security and quality is been checked.

These unauthorized buildings are black economy activity, these are constructed without seeking a required permission for the construction, the land for the unauthorized housing is encroached by illegal means and they don’t have any proper public utilities or services. Such properties are not taxed, therefore the need not to pay any income and fee to these municipal corporation for there services and insure the residency in these illegal areas they bribe the corrupt officers

EFFORTS MADE TO LEGALISE UNAUTHORIZED COLONIES

The bill in order to regularize unauthorized colonies has been sent for approval. Once the bill would be passed the residents of these unauthorized colonies would be getting the ownership and these residents would be exempted from tax liability to be incurred during this process of regularization. DDA in Delhi has planned for their redevelopment. The ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has fixed the procedure to be followed and the charges to be paid by the residents. New regulation is issued in suppression of earlier issued regulation in 2008.

BACKGROUND: GROWTH OF THESE SLUM

These slums have been increasing since 1950s only due to poor housing planning, lack of affordable low cost housing and poor planning has encouraged the demand of these slums.The reason for the growth is rural people migrating to these urban places in search of jobs and livelihood, faulty planning of these city for such a large number of human population, even the government attention to such illegal housing is also lacking, many of the authorities get bribed from the residents and the builder of these unauthorized housing.

Faulty government policies such as Rajiv Gandhi Ghar Yojana, Jawahar Lal National Urban Renewal Mission also failed in its execution and achieving the desired results

Now these unauthorized colonies have been more and more attractive and in demand due to the following reasons-

  • Location being one of the most important reason for there been in demand as these are in the posh area of authorized colony and therefore are able to get the benefits of the basic amenities and infrastructural benefits offered to them. Metro connectivity benefits.
  • Realistic facilities- these colonies even being illegal enjoy the benefits of legal housing that to without paying anything for these facilities no bills , no taxes , no fee etc. they have proper water, electricity supply even some of them are now having gas line facilities too.

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RESIDENTS

The residents face a lot of problems:

  • There are a lot of safety issued faced by the residents as the builders doesn’t follow the proper procedure and law for building such buildings even they don’t care about the safety and security measures of such buildings. We have come across a lot of accidents were the residents died due to collapse of building and the reason for collapse is poor quality of material used, no proper procedure followed.
  • No proper public services and utilities such as waste management, waste disposal, sewage system is there. Since these are the basic things which if not done affects the health, hygiene and life of the residents. Due to the improper sewage, garbage disposal a lot of diseases are spread, and they cause health issue to its residents. They don’t have any proper safe and healthy environment to live.
  • Problem of water logging, flooding is faced by the residents due to improper internal road development and maintenance.
  • Since these properties are free from income tax and they don’t pay anything as a there liability to the government therefore the government also doesn’t owe anything to them therefore it doesn’t take the responsibility for road construction, maintenance, sewage, garbage issues.
  • Residents are always under the fear of collapse of building. Due to inadequate supplies and poor construction a lot ofaccidents occur, the buildings collapses, which results into grievousinjuries to the residents there and many a times death is caused. Recently in 2013 April 4 a building of eight story collapsed in Shai Patra in Mumbai which caused death of 72 residents. Its not that these collapses occur very rarely, these are very common in these unauthorized colonies.

PROCESS OF LEGALISATION

For the purpose of legalization after the passing of the bill a web portal would be created where the residents would be filing u the application for the ownership of their residents. The property documents would be recognized and then a valid transaction for the transfer of ownership would be entered and then the residents will be having the legitimate claim in there property. The property holder have to invest in order to get safe structure with proper security, health and hygiene. The charges for this would be calculated on the basis of carpet area each unit.

While taking a note on the hardship of such residents the CBDT has exempted them for tax payment because as per section 56(2)x of Income Tax Act 1961 if a person is having  immovable property without paying adequate consideration then such property is chargeable to tax but CBDT inserted rule 11UAC which have exempted them. But the condition for exemption is that it must be regularized by the central government.

ISSUE INVOLVED

The unauthorized colonies are basically a part of illegal planning since 1950s in major metropolitan cities such as Delhi being the capital of India, in Mumbai etc. as such there is no problem with the residents of these colonies but the issue is that the structure of these buildings, their way of makingand all is totally opposite to the building procedure and the laws, nor any safety and security measures are being followed which results in collapse causing death of people who are the future and a part of our country. A proper layout should be made for the affordable housing for all the people, the migrants coming to live, proper accommodation plans should be made. There are government agencies such as DDA (Delhi Development Authority) failed in their work in controlling the growth of these unauthorized colonies, they failed to perform their jobs which has now resulted in increase in the number of these colonies.

CONCLUSION

For the purpose to improve are ranking in affordable housing basically not even focusing on our rank but for the people of our nation to improve their standard of living, their environment in which they are living without proper safety and security the step taken for their regularization is correct. Steps must be taken for the making there. Steps must be taken to mitigate these illegal housing which include creating more affordable housing structures, redeveloping the safe building, developing a proper plan of actions.

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