Mohali, May 21 -- The chief administrator of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Vishesh Sarangal, has ordered an inquiry into 15 illegal colonies that have come up in areas under the authority's jurisdiction in Mohali over the past eight months. The chief administrator has directed additional chief administrator Amarinder Singh to submit a report within two days, following which action will be taken against the officials concerned. These colonies - spread across nearly 50 acres in Sectors 120 to 123, covering villages such as Daun, Raipur, Behlolpur, Barmajra, Tarauli and Jhampur - have been carved out of agricultural land, bypassing the mandatory Change of Land Use (CLU) process, which entails hefty fees and government permissions. Property dealers have purchased fertile agricultural land and subdivided it into plots ranging from 100 to 150 square yards and are selling them to unsuspecting homebuyers. While GMADA is known to enforce regulations strictly in urban sectors, it appears to have turned a blind eye in these rural pockets, allowing homeownership dreams to be built on shaky legal ground. A senior GMADA officer said, that the fault does not lie with GMADA alone, but also with the district administration, questioning why land is being registered without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from GMADA, and why PSPCL is installing power meters in these illegal colonies. In August last year, while scrapping the requirement for an NOC for land and property registration, the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department had instructed chief administrators of all regional development authorities to ensure that no illegal colonies are allowed to develop. Authorities were also directed to use recent Google satellite imagery to identify illegal constructions and initiate prompt legal action against violators. In a policy shift, the Punjab government had also announced a one-time exemption from the NOC requirement for property owners who could prove the authenticity of their sale deeds executed before July 31, 2024....