New OCs to help 2.5L families

The Maharashtra government has announced a sweeping, revised Occupancy Certificate (OC) amnesty scheme aimed at ending one of Mumbai's most persistent urban nightmares - the existence of nearly 20,000 buildings that have remained without mandatory OCs for years.

- Agencies

Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, speaking during the winter session of the state assembly in Nagpur on Thursday, said the move would bring long-awaited relief to more than 10 lakh residents who have lived under legal uncertainty, suffered inflated taxes, and struggled to access basic financial services because their buildings lacked this crucial document.

Shinde, who holds both the urban development and housing portfolios, described the initiative as a corrective measure for “minor plan deviations” that had kept thousands of buildings in bureaucratic limbo.

These deviations, he said, were not structural risks but technical issues that resulted in homeowners paying double property tax, water charges and sewerage tax — a penalty that has persisted for years despite residents occupying fully built, habitable homes.