Special Scheme, Regularization/Resettlement of Encroachment in Corporation Areas

What the government order covers

Government Order (Ms.) No. 800 of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department applies to Corporation areas except Chennai and the Chennai City belt areas. It provides a process for considering regularization of encroachments on unobjectionable poramboke land and authorizes District Collectors to decide cases within a monetary limit.

The wider special scheme concerns regularizing housing encroachments on unobjectionable porambokes and resettling people occupying objectionable porambokes. No regularization proposal may be sent under these Corporation guidelines for objectionable poramboke land.

Land area and household eligibility

Government Order (Ms.) No. 800 sets the following limits:

• The regularized extent is 1 cent, stated as 40 square metres, per beneficiary.
• If an encroachment exceeds 1 cent, up to one further cent may be assigned after collecting single market value.
• Regularization cannot exceed 2 cents, including the free and paid portions.
• The household income limit is Rs.3,00,000 per year.
• If household income is above that limit, up to 2 cents may be regularized after collecting the market value of the entire portion.

Larger encroached sites

Government Order (Ms.) No. 800 requires a different approach where more than 15 cents of Corporation land is contiguously encroached by housing or otherwise. The land must be handed over to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board for vertical development, accommodating eligible existing encroachers and eligible people relocated from objectionable porambokes.

Review and decision process

Government Order (Ms.) No. 800 requires a District level committee led by the District Collector. Its members include representatives from the Commissioner of Land Administration, Corporation, District Revenue Office, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and planning authority. A State level officer from another department must participate where that department holds the land.

The full committee must inspect the land and assess each case. It must consider:

• The city’s overall housing development.
• Possible future government need for the land.
• Suitability for multi storied apartments.
• Whether occupants can be accommodated in another suitable Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenement or Free HSD outside the city limit and belt area.

The District Collector may regularize cases valued up to 5 lakhs. Tahsildars and Revenue Divisional Officers have no monetary power. Cases above 5 lakhs must be sent to the Government through the Commissioner of Land Administration, based on the committee’s recommendation.