Chandigarh, May 30:  Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal while giving a big sigh of relief to those owning houses and shops of Municipality on lease or rent basis for the past 20 years, today announced ownership rights for all such owners. For the execution of this announcement, a policy has been framed under which the tenant will have to pay less than the present collector rate to get the ownership right.

The Chief Minister announced this while addressing a digital press conference here today. The Chief Minister also extended best wishes and congratulated all the media persons on the occasion of Hindi Journalism Day.

The Chief Minister said that if anyone has taken shop, house on the Municipal land either on rent, lease basis, Tehbazari or by paying license fee for 20 years or more then all such occupiers would be given ownership right under this policy. As per the policy, the occupier should have completed 20 years as of December 31, 2020.

The Chief Minister further announced that a rebate of 20 percent on the current collector rate would be given to those tenants who have been residing in the house or are running a shop for the past 20 years.  Similarly, those who have an occupancy period of 50 years will get a rebate of up to 50 percent. Besides this, if an occupier has a period of more than 50 years, then in that case he will be given a maximum relaxation of 50 percent only on the present collector rate.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the Municipalities associated with the occupiers who are found eligible by the competent authority will then issue notice to the beneficiary asking them to pay the amount fixed after the rebate within a period of 15 days. The beneficiary will have to deposit 25 percent of the total fixed amount to the concerned municipality within a period of 15 days counted from issuance of the notice, while the remaining 75 percent amount will have to be deposited within three months.

The Chief Minister announced that if Municipality has rented or leased any land building to one or more occupiers, then the amount will have to be paid as per the fixed floor-wise formula.

He said that if only one allottee has been allotted the constructed building, then the base rate will have to be paid for that. If the municipality has constructed two floors and each floor is given to two different allottees, then 60 percent of the base rate for the ground floor and 40 percent of the base rate for the first floor will have to be paid.

Similarly, if the Municipality has to allot a three-story building to different allottees,  then 50 percent  of the base rate for the ground floor, 30 percent  of the base rate for the first floor and 20 percent of the base rate for the second floor will be paid.

He said that if the Municipality has allocated triple storey buildings to different allottees, then the roof right will be given to the allottee owning the top floor, provided that he will not indulge in additional construction there.

Municipalities will have the right to sell the unused land

The Chief Minister said that the state government had issued orders for exchange of revenue roads. Apart from these, there is a lot of land in different pieces in the municipalities which are not being used and hence there is a possibility of illegal encroachment. Therefore, it has been decided that the Municipalities would be authorized to sell such lands. This will not only end the possibility of illegal encroachment on such lands but would also   play a crucial role in strengthening the financial position of the Municipalities, said the Chief Minister.  A proper system for evaluation of these lands would be made and applications  inviting the sale at the price fixed will be sought soon.

An amount of Rs 3,700 crore to be spent on pavement of Rajwahas under micro-irrigation scheme

The Chief Minister said that the State Government has restructured and redesignated the Command Area Development Authority (CADA) as Micro Irrigation and Command Area Development Authority (MICADA) to promote micro irrigation and for effective implementation of the works  pertaining to watercourses on the canals.

The main objective of  MICADA is to ensure maximum use of available water in irrigation. He said that  MICADA has given special attention to micro-irrigation and efforts are being made for maximum utilization of irrigation water, reducing water wastage, minimizing crop risk and raising the standard of living of farmers by promoting food security.

He said that there are a total of 15,006 Rajwahas in the state, out of which 3512 are unpaved  and 11,494 are paved. The goal of MICADA is to micro-irrigate 70 percent of the land irrigated by Rajwahas. If successful in achieving this goal, then more farms will be made able to achieve the goal of providing maximum water for irrigation.

For this purpose, MICADA has started three new projects for the construction of new Rajwahas and rehabilitation of old and dilapidated ones, which will be completed by March 31, 2025. This include paving of 1,546 Rajwahas included in Bhakra Canal Command Phase-II, W.J.C. Canal Phase-IV and JLN Canal Command-II. About 2,68,625 hectares of land will be irrigated through these rajwahas and an amount of Rs 3,700 crore will be spent on this work.

The Chief Minister said that the government is also doing the mapping of Rajwahas which are more than 20 years old and after the mapping work is done these will also be paved again.

Five Karam paths to be paved

The Chief Minister said that during the Budget Session of 2019-20, an announcement of paving all 5 Karam paths connecting one village to another village in the state was made. In line with this announcement, Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board has identified 475 unpaved paths measuring 1225 kilometers. An amount of Rs 490 crore will be spent on the pavement work. The target is to ensure that the pavement work of these paths is completed by the year 2023-24.

On this occasion, the Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh.  D.S. Dhesi, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Director General, Information, Public Relations and Languages Department, Dr. Amit Agrawal and Principal Media Advisor to Chief Minister, Sh. Vinod Mehta were present.