Chapter III ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRIPURA URBAN PLANNING AND

i. With effect from such date as the State Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf, the State Government shall establish for the purposes of this Act, an Authority to be known as the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority (referred hereinafter as “Authority”) with Headquarters at such places as the State Government may specify. ii. The Authority established under sub-section (i) shall be a body corporate as well as by the name aforesaid, having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both moveable and immovable, and to contract, and shall, by the said name, sue and be sued. iii. The Authority established under sub-section (i) shall consist of the following members to be appointed by the State Government, namely: a. A Chairman; b. A Vice-chairman; c. A Commissioner who shall be appointed from amongst the officers of the Government of Tripura having such qualifications and experience as may be prescribed and shall act as Member Secretary and Chief Executive of the Authority; d. Not more than four(4) official members including the officials from relevant departments specifically from Urban Development, Town & Country Planning and Revenue sector to be prescribed by the notifications in Official Gazette; e. Not more than 2 (two) members from officers of not less than Secretary of State rank retired from government having relevant experience or from academic institutions having relevant expertise.

i. The term of office and conditions of service of the members of the Authority shall be such as may be prescribed. ii. The Commissioner shall be entitled to receive from the fund of the Authority such salary and such allowances, if any, as may be prescribed. iii. Any member, other than the Commissioner, may be paid from the fund of the Authority such allowances, if any, as may be prescribed.

The State Government may remove from office any member of the Authority- i. Who, without excuse, sufficient in the opinion of the State Government, is absent for more than three consecutive meetings of the Authority; ii. Who has, in the opinion of the State Government, so abused his position as a member as to render his continuance on the Authority detrimental to the interests of the Authority.

Upon occurrence any vacancy in the office of Chairman, Vice-chairman, Commissioner or any other member of the Authority, a new Chairman, Vice-chairman, Commissioner or member, as the case may be, shall be appointed.

i. The Authority shall meet at such times and places and shall, observe such procedure in regard to the transaction of its business at such meetings as the Authority may provide by regulations. ii. At every meeting of the Authority, the Chairman, if present, or, in his absence, the Vice-chairman, and if the Vice-chairman is also not present, then any one of its members, whom the members present may elect, shall preside. iii. All questions at a meeting of the Authority shall be decided by a majority of votes of the members present and voting and in the case of equality of votes; the member presiding shall have a casting vote. iv. Minutes shall be kept of the names of the members present and the proceedings at each meeting shall be kept in a book to be maintained for this purpose which, shall be signed at the next meeting by the person presiding at such meeting and shall be open to inspection by any member during office hours. v. For the transactional of business at a meeting of the Authority, the quorum shall be one-third of the number of members actually serving for the time being but shall not, in any case, be less than four: -Provided that if a meeting is adjourned for want of quorum, no quorum shall be necessary at the next meeting for transacting the same business. -Provided further that a notice of the adjourned meeting shall be sent to all members of the Authority.

The commissioner shall be the Chief Executive of the Authority and shall arrange for the transaction of business of the Authority, authenticate orders and decisions of the Authority as may be assigned to him by the Authority under its regulations.

Subject to any regulations made in this behalf by the Authority, the Authority may, from time to time, appoint Executive Committee headed by the Commissioner of the Authority and having such other members as notified by the Authority for the purpose of securing the efficient discharge of the functions of the Authority and in particular for the purpose of ensuring the efficient planning, maintenance of public amenities and execution of development works and projects.

i. The Authority or Executive Committee appointed under Section 23 may associate with itself any person whose assistance or advice it may require in the performance of its functions under this Act. ii. Any person associated with it by the Authority under sub-section (i) for any purpose shall have a right to that purpose and shall have a right to take part in the discussions of the Authority relevant to that purpose but shall not have a right to vote at the meeting.

No act done or proceedings taken under this Act shall be questioned merely on the ground of- a. The existence of any vacancy in or any defect in the Constitution of the Authority; b. Any person associated under Section 24 having voted in contravention of the provisions of this Act in this behalf; c. The failure to serve a notice on any person where no substantial injustice has resulted from such failure; d. Any omission, defect or irregularity not affecting the merits of the case.

i. The Authority shall establish its office which will be headed by the Commissioner of the Authority and shall have powers to hire, outsource, depute officers, experts, engineers, consultants, consulting firms, employees, staff as and when required either for temporary period or for specific duration to carry out day to day function, technical, legal, survey work and other activities as may be necessary and may determine their designations and grades by way of notifications. ii. The officers and other employees of the Authority shall be entitled to receive, from the fund of the Authority, such salaries and allowances and shall be governed by such conditions of service as may be determined by regulations made in this behalf by the Authority. iii. The exercise of any powers or discharge of any duties or functions under sub-section (i) by any officer or other employees of the Authority shall be subject to such restrictions, conditions and limitations, if any, as may be laid down by regulations of the Authority and shall also be subject to its control and supervision.

No person who has, directly or indirectly, by himself or through his partner or agent, any share or interest in any contact by or on behalf of the Authority, or in any employment under, by or on behalf of the authority, otherwise than as an officer or employee thereof, shall become or remain an officer or employee of the Authority.

i. The object of the Authority shall be to promote and secure better planning and development of any area of the State as well as set up amenities and for that purpose the Authority shall have the powers to acquire by way of allotment, purchase, transfer, exchange or gift or to hold, manage, plan, develop and mortgage or otherwise dispose of land or other property or to carry out itself or in collaboration with any other agency or through any other agency on its behalf, building, engineering, mining and other operations to execute works in connection with supply of water, disposal of sewerage, control of pollution, construction of road & buildings, development of water bodies or open spaces and other services and amenities and generally to do anything for carrying out the purposes of this Act. ii. In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions, the authority itself or in collaboration with any other agency or through any other agency on its behalf- a. Take up the works in connection with the preparation and implementation of Regional Plans, Master Plans and New Township Plans, Town improvement schemes; b. Undertake the work relating to the amenities and services to be provided in the Urban & Planning Area, Urban estates, for Urban Development as well as construction of houses & other infrastructure; c. Promote research, development of new techniques of planning, land development and house construction and manufacture of building material; d. Promote companies, association and other bodies for carrying out the purposes of the Act; and e. Perform any other function which are supplemental, incidental or consequential to any of the functions referred to in this sub-section or which may be prescribed; f. Accord approval of layout plan or any other development plan, any other statutory clearances as may be prescribed by the state government, in the local planning areas taken up for development by the Authority. g. The implementation of master plan and development in the local planning area will be responsibility of the Authority and rest of municipal areas with ULB concerned.

i. Where the State Government is of opinion that the object of proper development of any area or group of areas together with such adjacent areas as may be considered necessary will be best served by entrusting the work of development or redevelopment thereof to a Special Authority, instead to the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority, the State Government may, by notification, constitute an Authority for such area to be called the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority for that area and thereupon, all the powers and functions of the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority relating to development and redevelopment of that area under this Act, shall be exercised and performed by the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority so constituted. ii. Every notification issued under sub-section (i) shall define the limits of the area to which it relates. iii. The Special Urban Planning and Development Authority constituted under sub-section (i) shall consist of a Chairman, such a number of official non official members notified by the State Government to that effect and a Commissioner which shall be appointed from amongst the officers of the Government of Tripura having such qualifications and experience as may be prescribed iv. Every Special Urban planning and Development Authority constituted under sub-section (i) shall be a body corporate, by the name aforesaid, having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property both movable and immovable, and, to contact and by the said name sue and be sued. v. The provisions of this Act shall mutatis mutandis apply to Special Urban Planning and Development Authority constituted under sub-section (i) as they apply in relation to the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority, shall be constructed as references to the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority.

i. Where the State Government is satisfied that it is expedient in the Public interest so to do, it may, by notification, designate any local authority functioning in a planning area to be the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority for that area or any part thereof and thereupon all the powers and functions of the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority relating to that area or part thereof, as the case may be, shall be exercised by such local authority. ii. On the issue of a notification under sub-section (i), the powers to be exercised and functions to be performed by the Chairman of the Authority under this Act shall be exercised and performed in the case of a Municipal Corporation by its

i. Where the State Government is of opinion that the object of proper planning and development of a site of a new town will be best served by entrusting the work of development thereof to a Special Authority, instead to the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority, it may, by notification, constitute a Special Authority for that site to be called the New Town Planning and Development Authority for that area and thereupon, all the powers and functions of the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority relating to development of that site of the new town under this Act, shall be exercised and performed by such New Town Planning and Development Authority.

ii. A New Town Planning and Development Authority constituted under sub-section (i), shall be a body corporate as well as local authority by the name aforesaid having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both moveable and immovable and to contract, and by the said name sue and be sued.

iii. A New Town Planning and Development Authority shall consist of a Chairman, such number of official & non official members notified by the State Government to that effect and a Commissioner who shall be appointed from amongst the officers of the Government of Tripura having such qualifications and experience as may be prescribed.

iv. The provisions of this Act shall mutatis mutandis apply to a New Town Planning and Development Authority as they apply in relation to the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority, with the modification that references to the Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority shall be constructed as references to a New Town Planning and Development Authority. him of such order prefer an appeal to the Commissioner in such form and manner as may be prescribed: Provided that the Commissioner may entertain the appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days, if he satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filling the appeal in time. vi. The Commissioner may, after hearing the appeal, confirm, vary or reverse the ordered appeal from and may pass such order as he thinks fit. vii. The Commissioner may either on his own motion or on an application received in this behalf at any time within a period of six months from the date of the order, call for the record of any proceeding in which the Estate Officer has passed an order for the purpose of satisfying himself as to the legality or propriety of such order and may pass such order in relation there as he thinks fit:Provided that the Commissioner shall not pass an order under this section prejudicial to any person without giving him a reasonable opportunity of being heard. viii. Where a person is aggrieved by any order of the Commissioner, deciding the case under sub-section (vi) or sub-section (vii), he may, within thirty days of the date of communication to him of such order, make an application in writing to the State Government for revision against the said order and the State Government may confirm, alter or rescind the order of the Commissioner.

i. Where the State Government after consultation with the Board, is of the opinion that it is expedient in the public interest or in the interest of the Development of the area under the jurisdiction of two or more Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities, that two or more Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities, should be amalgamated, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, provide for the amalgamation such Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities (hereinafter in this chapter referred to as the transferor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities) into a single Special Urban Planning and Development Authority (herewith in this Chapter referred to as the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority) with such constitution, property, powers, rights, interests, Authorities and privileges and with such liabilities, duties and obligation as may be specified in the notification.

ii. Every notification issued under sub-section (i) shall define the limits of the area to which it relates and specify the date with effect from which the amalgamation shall become effective.

iii. Every notification issued under sub-section (i) may also provide for one or any of the following matters namely- a. The continuance in service of all the employees of the transferor of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities in the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority at the same remuneration and on the same terms and condition of the service which they were getting or as the case may be, by which they were being govern, immediately before the date on which the amalgamation takes effect. b. The other terms and conditions for the amalgamation of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities. c. The continuance by or against the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority of any pending legal proceedings by or against any transferor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, and d. Such consequential, incidental and supplementary provisions, as maybe necessary, in the opinion of the State Government, to give effect to the amalgamation.

iv. Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (a) of sub-section (iii), where any employee of the transferor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority by notice in writing given to the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority at any time before the expiry of three months next following the date of which the amalgamation takes effect has intimated his intention of not becoming an employee of the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, he shall cease to be employee of the Authority of the expiry of the notice served and shall be entitled to get such gratuity, provident fund and other retirement benefits as are ordinarily admissible to him under the rules or Authorization of transferor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority immediately before the date of amalgamation;

v. On and from the date on which the amalgamation takes effect under sub-section (ii) the transfer or Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities shall cease to carry on business or to discharge any liability or obligation except to the extent as may be necessary for the implantation of the provisions of the same amalgamation shall stand dissolved from the date of amalgamation.

vi. Notwithstanding anything contained in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (Central Act XIV of 1947) or any other law for the time being in force, the transferof the service of any employee of the transferor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities to the transferee Special Urban Planning and Development Authority shall not entitle any such employee to any compensation under that Act or any other law for the time being in force and no such claim shall be entertained by any court, tribunal or any other authority.

i. Where the State Government after consultation with the Board, is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest or in the interest of the development of the area under the jurisdiction of any Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, that any area under the jurisdiction of the said Authority should be excluded from its jurisdiction, the State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, provide for the exclusion of such area and to constitute new Special Urban Planning and Development Authority for that area so excluded.

ii. On the constitution of a new Special Urban Planning and Development Authority under sub-section (i), the assets and liabilities of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority from whose jurisdiction the area is so excluded hereinafter referred to the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority shall be appointed between the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities in the manner specified hereinafter- 1) All lands and stores, articles and other goods belonging to the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority shall- a. If within the area of jurisdiction of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, pass on to the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority in whose area they are situated; b. If outside the area of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, be appointed between the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities according to ratio of the area falling under their respective jurisdiction. 2) The bank balances and grants received from time to time shall be appointed between the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities according to ratio of the area falling under their respective jurisdiction. Provided that a grant given for the development of an area which falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of any of the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities, shall be transferred to that successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority 3) Where before the date of exclusive of any area the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority has made any contract for the purpose of that Authorities, that contract shall be deemed to have been made- a. If the purposes of the contract are on and from the date of exclusion of the area exclusively purposes of any one of the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, by that successor Authority, and b. If the purposes of the contract are on and from that date not exclusively purposes of any one of the Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities, by all the Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities and, the rights and liabilities which has accrued or may accrue under any such contract shall, to the extent to which they would have been the rights and liabilities of the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, be the rights and the liabilities of the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, or, as the case may be, the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities, according to the ratio of the area falling under their respective jurisdiction.

iii. Where the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority is a party to any legal proceedings with respect to any property, rights or liabilities, subject to appointment under this section, the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority which succeeds to or acquires a share in that property or to those proceedings and the proceedings may continue accordingly.

iv. a. Every whole time employee of the existing Special Urban Planning and Development Authority shall on and from the date of notification under sub-section (i) shall provisionally continue to be an employee of that Authority unless he is required by, general or special order of the State Government, to serve as an employee of any other successorSpecial Urban Planning and Development Authority. b. As soon as may be after the date of notification under sub-section (i), the State Government shall by general or Special order, determine the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority to which every employee referred to in clause (a) shall be finally allotted for service and the date with effect from which such allotment shall take effect or be deemed to have taken effect. c. Every employee who is finally allotted under the provisions of clauses (b), to a successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority shall, if he is not already serving with the Authority, be made available for serving with the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authority from such date as may be agreed upon between the successor Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities or in default of such agreement as may be determined by the State Government. d. The State Government may, by order, establish an advisory committee for the purpose of assisting it with regard to-

(i) Where the State Government is satisfied that purposes for which an Authority is constituted or designated under this Act have been substantially achieved so as to render the continued existence of the Authority in the opinion of the State Government unnecessary, the State Government may, by notification, declared that the Authority shall be dissolved with effect from such date as may specified in the notification and the Authority shall be deemed to be dissolved accordingly. (ii) From the date specified under sub-section (i)- (a) All properties, funds and dues which are vested in, or realizable by, the Authority shall vest in, or be realizable by, the State Government; (b) All liabilities which are enforceable against the Authority shall be enforceable against the State Government; and (c) For the purpose of carrying out any development which has not been fully carried out by the Authority and for the purpose of realizing properties, funds and dues referred to in clause (a), the functions of the Authority shall be discharged by the State Government.