PUNJAB has, once more, come clean and clear on its regularisation policy, with its Cabinet approving the Regularisation of Unauthorised Colony Bill. The contours of the pro-people policy are well defined, having taken into account the concerns of all stakeholders. The draft of the policy came with its own squeeze: property developers dismissed the policy notified in April as impractical, cumbersome and unrealistic, while Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu declared it was ‘pro-coloniser’ and crammed with flaws that would ‘kill planned urban development for next 25 years’.The Group of Ministers did well to take cognizance of the real fears on high licence fee, external development charges and composition fee; and incorporating suggestions forwarded by Navjot Sidhu, including those on road width and resident welfare associations. Under the reworked policy, plot holders applying for regularisation will have to ensure registration within the stipulated three months, while the developer must get 50 per cent plots registered within a year of filing an application. Otherwise, an additional 20 per cent cost would have to be braved. There is also a clause on the abeyance of FIRs against illegal developers if they deposit the mandatory charges. The regularisation charges will be used for providing basic infrastructure to colonies. The SAD-BJP alliance had introduced three such policies. A forklift overhaul was needed, but the short-term seductive narrative was a partial success. Punjab’s official figure of its illegal colonies is 7,000, some located outside the MC limits. Despite the numerous challenges that come with illegal colonies, the problem deserved sympathetic handling. Demolishing lakhs and lakhs of houses, rendering scores of people homeless, was well-nigh unthinkable. But again, the government can’t abdicate its own responsibility to provide affordable, clean living to its citizenry. Its development wings must keep coming up with planned colonies. The newest policy may claim to be sui generis if it can assure that at its non-negotiable core is the welfare of the buyer, struggling to find a decent place, with very basic amenities, she can call home.