The Himachal Pradesh government has fixed the fee for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for building construction in panchayats that fall under the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Area. As per the decision, the fee has been set at ₹100 for domestic construction and ₹1,000 for commercial construction.
The government has also decided to integrate the NOC issuance service of gram panchayats with the e-District portal. At present, panchayats issue NOCs manually and follow different formats, which often leads to delays and inconsistencies. With the new system, applications and certificates will be issued exclusively online.
To bring uniformity, the state has prepared a standard NOC format, rejection format and application form. These have been designed on the basis of the statutory responsibilities of gram panchayats under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.
Under the new guidelines, an NOC will be rejected if the building owner is found to have encroached upon public property of the panchayat. This includes roads, pathways, water sources, pipelines, drains, playgrounds and other public structures. The Panchayat Secretary will be responsible for carefully examining records related to public properties and, if required, conducting on-site verification.
Before issuing an NOC, the proposal will be placed before the Gram Sabha. A decision on granting the NOC for domestic construction or commercial activities will be taken by consensus in the village assembly.
The government believes that making the process online and uniform will help prevent arbitrary decisions by panchayats and ensure the timely and transparent delivery of services to citizens.
