SHAHAR-2021 is being launched on 2nd October, 2021 by CM Gehlot
‘Prashashan Gaon Ke Sang’ programme to resolve issues of the villages
By Amrit Sidhu Brar
Jaipur 01 October 2021: Brainchild of Mr Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, the State Government has decided to run a six-month special campaign in the urban areas to resolve problems of the citizens through camp approach. Nicknamed as SHAHAR-2021 it is being launched on 2nd October, 2021 by the Chief Minister in all urban areas of Rajasthan and would continue till 31st March, 2022.Also being launched on this occasion is another campaign for the villages called ‘Prashashan Gaon Ke Sang’ programme to resolve issues of the villages.
This was disclosed by Dr G.S Sandhu Advisor Govt of Rajasthan
Dr Sandhu further disclosed that “A similar campaign was run in 2012-13 during the earlier tenure of Mr Ashok Gehlot as Chief Minister, Rajasthan and the same was a resounding success with over 5 lac title deeds issued for houses constructed on agriculture lands and over Rs 3000 crores of revenue earned by the urban local bodies”. Encouraged by the success of this earlier campaign it was decided to run a similar programme this year. Details of the programme were worked out at the level of Mr Shanti Dhariwal, Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Local-Self Government, Rajasthan. But there are a few differences in the two campaigns in terms of the focus and strategy said Dr G.S Sandhu.
Dr G. S Sandhu briefed that In terms of the focus, this time over it is mainly on issuing title deeds in the old abadi areas commonly called walled city areas. As is well known cities and towns in Rajasthan came up during the erstwhile princely states and some of the towns are centuries old with Jodhpur about 600 years, Udaipur about 500 years, Kota about 400 years, Jaipur about 300 years and so on. Most of the residents were issued some sort of permission or title during those times. The language of these documents is not easy to understand and in many cases these have been lost or torn. The result is that most of these residents of the old abadi areas donot have proper legal rights and lack access to bank finance.
In 2015 an amendment was carried out in the Rajasthan Municipal Act,1959 enabling issuance of title deeds by urban local bodies by getting the old papers surrendered from the residents of these areas. However this provision was scarcely used and remained mostly on paper. The present Government decided to revisit the relevant provisions, rules and circulars in this regard and after extensive examination made several changes enabling easy implementation of the same. Rates of allotment were also revised with only token amount for the very old properties prior to the year 1959 (this is the year when Municipal Act came into force in Rajasthan)
One redeeming feature of the complex situation is that most of the old documents of the erstwhile princely states up to the year 1953 are in the possession of the State Archives Department. During the last few years the Department has done a commendable work in digitizing over 20 lakh of the old pattas in 7 cities of Rajasthan. This digitized record would come in very handy in detecting any false submission of documents or in case of any doubts raised by public or officials.
Dr G S Sandhu further informed that In order to carry out the mandate of the Chief Minister, the Urban Development Minister Dhariwal had extensive discussions with the officers of the department and the local bodies. Divisional level workshops were held with officials and elected persons of the urban local bodies and issues identified based on the feedback received in these workshops. Thereafter an extensive revision in the existing statutes, rules and circulars was carried out to introduce a good degree of ease of approvals. One example is that upto 500 sq metres of land no construction permission is required- the plot holder can self certify and submit site plan of the plot alongwith the nature of construction to be carried out and the fees to be paid. Beyond 500 sq meters and upto 2500 sq meters the registered Architects have been authorized to approve the building plans and no separate approvals are needed.
Similarly due to the long Covid-19 pandemic adversely affecting financial condition of common man, several rebates and reduction in interest charges has been announced.
Dr G. S Sandhu said “The second major plank of the campaign is the regularization of colonies set up on agriculture lands. After the last campaign in 2012-13 several more colonies have come up on agriculture lands and also there are some left over cases of previous years. In between Hon’ble Rajasthan High Court has issued orders in terms of zonal planning and land uses”.
Keeping this in mind zonal plans in 28 cities with population of over 1 lakh have been prepared over the last about one year. This has paved the way to issue pattas to the plot holders for residential, commercial or institutional uses. It is estimated that about 7 – 8 lakh houses have been constructed, partially or fully on agriculture lands which need to be given title deeds.
Traditionally lease hold pattas have been granted in Rajasthan but this time the focus would be on granting free hold pattas rather than lease hold pattas. Lot of interest is being shown by people to get free- hold pattas for their properties.
Along with review of existing rules and circulars an extensive review of all categories of lease deeds (pattas) was undertaken and several superfluous conditions were removed or revised. New patta formats have been devised keeping the colour of land uses in the master plans in mind- yellow for residential, red for commercial, blue for institutional, purple for industrial and brown for mixed land use. This will help in easy identification of the pattas with their land uses.
Rajasthan is the first state in the country where master plans have been notified for every city and town of the state. And now zonal plans have also been prepared for the cities with population of over one lakh population.
A special website has been developed containing online application facility. Training has been imparted to officers of local bodies to run the online system. In order to render technical assistance to the Nagar Mitras’ have been registered for all the towns of Rajasthan. Overall over 600 Nagar Mitras have been registered. These are professional persons- engineers, architects, town planners who will render technical assistance to the applicants who apply to local bodies for their land related work.
As the campaign will proceed and feedback is received at the state level more relaxations may be announced to resolve the pending issues. All in all the State Government is serious about the success of the campaign and providing the much desired ease of living to common citizen.
