Government dilutes Gunthewari Act

Any common man can purchase small land and construct his own home at the outskirts of the municipal corporation or at any city boundary limit after the state government diluted the Gunthewari Act. Till date the construction of the house on guntha (small piece) land was notified as illegal and the sale of the property was not allowed. The decision will be beneficial to at least 50 lakh house owners across the state, out of which the Pimpri–Chinchwad area will have the highest number of beneficiaries, numbering up to 18 lakh.

The decision was taken by the state Cabinet on Tuesday following a demand by BJP legislator Laxman Jagtap of the Pimpri-Chinchwad constituency who continuously raised the issue in state legislature to legalise construction over guntha land. Revenue minister Eknath Khadse claimed that by regularising these constructions, the state would net more than Rs 5,000 crore in way of tax.

Elaborating on the issue, revenue minister Eknath Khadse said, “In several cities, people have constructed homes either on field land or on owned land that was splitting in small area (guntha) measuring less than 10 hectares. But as the Gunthewari Act does not allow any person to split land in small pieces and use it to for development, the constructions were notified as illegal.”

The Maharashtra Gunthewari Development (Regulation, Upgradation and Control) Act does not allow splitting of land. Mr Khadse said that in Pimpri-Chinchwad, more than 3 lakh houses were constructed over guntha land before formation of Pimpri-Chinchwad Pradhikaran in 1978. “Till date, the number of such illegal houses number 18 lakh in this city alone and more than 1.5 crore across the state.”

The houses were registered by the stamp registrar of the state government and even stamp duty was collected from these house and land owners. But the lands were called an ‘illegal construction’ in the their 7/12 extract or the property card, which contain all the details about a land property.Mr Khadse added that, since one of the government’s own departments had collected revenue from illegal constructions, it was decided to regularise these constructions.