Shimla, Feb 19 (IANS): The Himachal Pradesh government Wednesday introduced a bill in the assembly to amend an act to regularise 12,694 unauthorised constructions in the state.

Introducing the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2014, Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma said the amendment was necessitated as the "high court had taken a serious notice of the grim situation and asked the government not to regularise the total unauthorised constructions".

"Considering this and the practice followed in other metropolitan cities to deal with the violated constructions, it has been considered more appropriate to make a special provision in the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act of 1977 for a specific period of one year as a one-time exemption by charging composition fee," he said.

The minister said demolition of such large-scale unauthorised construction was neither feasible nor practicable.

A special provision has been made in the bill to regularise unauthorised construction up to 70 percent by way of composition for one year from the commencement of the amendment act, he said.