In a huge relief to as many as 12 lakh Mumbai homeowners living in the city as ‘illegal encroachers’, the Mumbai civic body on Tuesday cleared a proposal to allow issuance of Occupational Certificates (OC) to all residential properties, schools and hospitals. The new amnesty scheme, however, is not for every person or family living in Mumbai as ‘illegal’. It only allows occupational certificates to the properties that were occupied on or before November 17, 2016.

The move brings relief to 12 lakh homeowners living in as many as 25,000 ‘illegal’ residential properties in Mumbai despite having followed the legal process to purchase their homes.

The amnesty scheme was cleared in April this year. Before that, in December last year, the state government’s urban development department (UDD) had passed a policy to grant OC to all the residential buildings in the state.

Who benefits from the amnesty scheme?

The BMC’s proposal states that the OC benefit will be extended to properties having a carpet area of 80 square feet.

As many as 25,000 properties in Mumbai will fall into this ambit.

The amnesty scheme will benefit 12 lakh Mumbaikars (Gemini-generated image)

The idea of this amnesty scheme was first mooted in 2018. However, it took the civic body eight years to implement it.

The proposal will be formally implemented through ward offices in the next few weeks.

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Is an Occupational Certificate important?

Issued by the civic authorities, an OC is a legal document that certifies that a building is fit for human occupancy. Any building, be it residential, commercial, school or hospital, would require an OC. It proves that the building was constructed according to an approved plan.

If one doesn’t have an OC, the building is deemed illegal for human occupancy, giving the civic body the right to evict the premises and cut the water and electricity supply.