Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020
No: 7 Dated: Apr, 01 2020
THE PUNJAB SLUM DWELLERS (PROPRIETARY RIGHTS) ACT, 2020
(Punjab Act No. 7 of 2020)
An Act to provide for sustainable growth of basic civic services in slum areas in urban towns and cities of the State of Punjab by conferring proprietary rights of land to the slum dwellers and ensuring their development through optimal utilization of resources
BE it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Punjab in the Seventyfirst Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and Commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020.
(2) This Act shall be applicable to the whole of the State of Punjab.
(3) This Act shall come into force on and with effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
2. Definitions:- (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "Authorized Officer" means the head of the Slum Redevelopment and Rehabilitation Committee or any officer authorized by the Government, by order, to exercise such powers as may be prescribed;
(b) "basic civic services" means the services of drinking water supply, sanitation, drainage, sewerage, solid waste disposal, street lighting and urban environment improvement;
(c) "Collector" means the Deputy Commissioner of a district and includes the Additional Deputy Commissioner or the Commissioner of Municipal Corporation or any officer specially appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a Collector under this Act;
(d) "Committee" means the Slum Area Redevelopment and Rehabilitation Committee constituted under section 6 of thisAct;
(e) "Economically Weaker Section (EWS)" means the section of beneficiaries whose household income is up to such limit as may be notified by the Government from time to time and is landless;
(f) "family" means husband, wife, unmarried son, unmarried daughter or any other person related by blood and wholly dependent on the slum dweller;
(g) "financial institution" means any institution or Company possessing license under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry out banking business and includes a Housing Finance Institution which has obtained a certificate of registration under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987;
(h) "Government" means the Government of the State of Punjab in the Department of Local Government;
(i) "Government land" means any land owned or acquired by the Government of Punjab or its undertakings and includes the land owned by the Urban Local Bodies;
(j) "landless person" means a person residing in the State of Punjab, who is a citizen of India and does not own either in his own name or in the name of any member of his family any house or land, or land rights granted or inherited under this Act in the urban area;
(k) "member" means a member of the Committee or sub-committee, as the case may be, and includes the Chairperson;
(l) "occupation" means an occupation of a land by a slum dweller for residential purposes;
(m) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(n) "proprietary rights" means the rights to land assigned to slum dwellers under section 3 of this Act;
(o) "public interest" means land usage as prescribed under the master plan or zonal development plans under the approved city development plan, if any, or the provision of basic urban services to public at large or prohibition of human habitation in environmentally hazardous or ecologically fragile sites or heritage sites;
(p) "redevelopment" means improvement to the existing slum by providing basic civic services and facilitating improvement of housing conditions in accordance with the housing scheme framed by the Government from time to time;
(q) "rehabilitation" means relocation of slum dwellers to other location in accordance with the housing scheme or policy framed by the Government from time to time;
(r) "slum" or "slum area" means a compact settlement of at least twenty-five households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitation and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions, which may be on the Government land in an urban area;
(s) "slum dweller" means any landless person in occupation within the limits of a slum area;
(t) "tenable habitations" means the habitations as decided by the Committee, where existence of human population does not entail undue risk to the safety or health or life of the residents or habitation or such sites are not considered contrary to public interest or the land is not required for any public or development purpose;
(u) "untenable habitations" means such areas where existence of human population entails undue risk to the safety or health or life of the inhabitants themselves or where habitation on such areas is considered by the Committee not to be in the public interest;
(v) "urban area" means the area comprised within the limits of Urban Local Bodies; and
(w) "Urban Local Bodies" means the municipal bodies established under the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 and the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.
(2) Words and expressions used herein but not defined, shall have the same meaning as assigned to them under the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 and the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976