Developers openly advertise illegal colonies in Ludhiana

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, April 23

Though the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has been taking action as per law against developers of illegal and unlicensed colonies from time to time and defaulters are invariably warned not to continue with further development works (internal and external) in violation of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act (PAPRA), more and more illegal colonies keep coming up in various parts of the city, especially on the periphery.

The prevailing scenario of proliferation of illegal and unlicensed colonies in and around the city has taken an alarming turn. Unscrupulous developers now openly and aggressively advertise their colonies in print, electronics and social media. Most of them try to befool the gullible members of public with false claims that their colonies are approved by the GLADA .

Even after a couple of policies having been launched by the state government for regularisation of illegal colonies across the state which were developed till March 2018, the official number of illegal colonies which failed to avail of the scheme stood at nearly 2,000.

“In the intervening period (March 2018 till date) several hundred more colonies have come up which are sparing no attempts to woo the buyers with some of these unscrupulous developers claiming their projects to be approved by GLADA with the regulatory body and its field staff watching the situation like a mute spectator,” says Harbir Singh, a property dealer in Dugri.

Advising members of public not to fall for misleading and false claims of unscrupulous developers, senior GLADA officials said the buyers must confirm the status of the colony and bona fides of developers before investing their hard-earned money to purchase residential plots or commercial property in illegal colonies.

“We have already recommended registration of criminal cases (FIRs) against many such developers of colonies on Dugri-Dhandra Road and some other locations,” said an official of engineering branch of the GLADA.