The state government will introduce the bills to regularize all the illegal constructions in the state that were constructed prior to November 7, 2019, in the upcoming assembly session to begin from December 5.
As per the amendment proposed to the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, and the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994, all the constructions that have been initiated or have been completed prior to November 7, 2019, can be regularized. Two bills will be introduced in this regard – for the panchayats as well as for the municipalities.
The Kerala panchayat raj (amendment) bill, 2022 proposes to amend section 235 AB and the Kerala municipality (amendment) bill 2022 proposes to amend the section 407 of the Act, both of which deal with the powers of the government to regularize the unlawful constructions.
As per the amendment, a committee consisting of the district town-planner, regional joint-director and the secretary of the local body concerned can, after seeking the opinion of the local body, regularize all such constructions after realizing a compounding fee. Though such a provision has been incorporated in the original Act, the governments have been, from time to time, extending the cut-off date for regularizing such constructions. As per the existing Act, the cut off date for regularizing the illegal constructions is July 31, 2017, which has now been extended by two more years, citing that the buildings rules under these Acts have come into force from November 8, 2019.
The original Act also lays out conditions that such regularization shall not adversely affect any town planning scheme or any master plan approved under the existing provisions of the Town Planning Act. It also says that no building construction shall be regularized, which is done in contravention of the provisions in respect of the security arrangements provided as per the Acts or the building rules made thereunder.
As many as 24 bills, including these two bills and the bills to remove the governor as the chancellor of the universities, will be introduced in the upcoming session of the assembly. The majority of the bills would deal with removing the governor as the chancellor as each of the universities are governed by separate Acts for which separate amendments will have to be proposed.
While the governor has made it clear that he would not sign on the bills passed by the assembly that deals with his removal as chancellor and will be referred to the President, it will have to be seen if the remaining ones, especially like regularizing the illegal constructions, will be signed by him, taking into account his open stand against many government policies, on moral grounds.