Amarinder Singh on Tuesday initiated the process of allotting free houses for the homeless poor, as promised in the Congress poll manifesto.
He also directed the setting up of a committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, to formulate a legislation for regularisation of illegal colonies and transfer of ownership rights to the occupants.
The Chief Minister also directed the Town Planning Department to complete work on preparing Master Plans of all cities in the state by the end of the current financial year.
The meeting further decided on a series of measures, including allotment of project-based No Due Certificate (NDC) to promoters, in order to ease the Real Estate business in the state. The NDC will now be valid for three months, to be taken by the department on the date of application for a particular service rather than as on date of delivery of service.
In another decision, the Chief Minister put his stamp of approval on the reduction of transfer fee levied by GMADA etc from 2.5% to 2% till March 31, 2018.
Chairing a review meeting of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Amarinder directed the officials concerned to ensure completion of the master plans within the stipulated timeframe by outsourcing the necessary planning work, if need be.
The meeting took several key decisions to create an enabling environment for the growth of the real estate sector, which has been suffering from a severe slowdown for years.
The Chief Minister took note of the various suggestions presented to him by officials of the Housing and Urban Development department and issued instructions for immediate implementation of several of them, according to an official spokesperson.
The suggestions presented to the Chief Minister were based on intensive discussions with the various stakeholders in the real estate sector, which was upbeat with the change in government in Punjab, the spokesperson added.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary Tejveer Singh and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Vini Mahajan.
On the issue of regularisation of the illegal colonies, it was decided to set up a committee under the Chief Secretary to formulate the necessary legislation for their regularisation and grant of ownership rights to the occupants.
The committee will have members from the Housing department, Local Bodies department and the Revenue Department, which would look into the issue of such colonies built by private promoters, on MC land and on land outside MC limits, respectively.
The Finance Minister stressed the need to ensure implementation of master plans in all the cities of Punjab, which currently has only 43 cities covered by master plans. The Chief Minister ordered work on the master plans to be take up on priority, with all master plans to be made available online.
A mobile app has also been launched, with effect from Tuesday, to facilitate the online procurement of property records by the allottees. The application would be extended later to cover e-payment services, such as making payments towards the allotted sites, payment user charges, viewing availability of sites with different authorities, etc.
The Chief Minister directed the department to initiate the process of identification and scrutiny of beneficiaries for free houses under the Mukhya Mantri Awaas Yojana. It was also decided to implement the poll promise of 30 per cent reservation for SCs in all future allotments, besides subsidised loans to families for buying/improving MIG housing. The meeting agreed to bring in a new need-based policy for LIG housing.
Taking note of the grievances of owners of marriage palaces, the Chief Minister asked the department to meet the stakeholders and take their views.
