E-Paper
Sector 32 PG fire tragedy: UT’s policy constraints at the heart of acute shortage of hostels in Chandigarh colleges
DAV College in Sector 10 has a hostel capacity of 750 against a total strength of 9,000 students; in GGDSD College, Sector 32, for over 4,000 students, there are only 500 hostel seats
The rampant growth of unregulated paying guest (PG) accommodations in the city has resulted from the fact that the established educational institutions have been impotent in meeting the growing demand for student hostels. And at the centre of this catastrophe is the UT administration’s stranglehold on policies that hegemonise creation/expansion of hostel facilities in schools and colleges.
While hostel facilities for students are almost non-existent in city schools, colleges, too, face severe policy constraints on expansion of hostel capacity.
For instance, DAV College in Sector 10 has a hostel capacity of around 750 students against its total strength of over 9,000 students. In Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College in Sector 32, for over 4,000 students, there are only 500 hostel seats.
Naresh Mittal, general secretary of Shri Dhanwantry Ayurvedic College and Hospital, Sector 46, said, “The original planning provisions regarding hostels facilities in schools and colleges never conceptualised the city becoming an educational hub for North India.
UNEXPECTED AMOUNT OF STUDENT INFLUX
In the last 15 years, the number of students coming from other states and countries to study in the city has increased manifold, with city catering to students from states including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
“But, educational institutions in the city have been severely constrained to create adequate residential facilities for the large student influx. This is the main reason for PGs thriving in the city,” added Mittal.
With Chandigarh becoming a hub of coaching institutes, PG facilities too came up in early 2000s. The PG business is thriving in areas such as Sectors 15, 22, 23, 32, 34, 35 and 43, but not more than 125 PGs are officially registered with the UT estate department, the nodal agency, to date.
UT ADMN FORMULATED POLICY IN 2006
As per the UT administration’s policy, originally, there were no provisions for city schools to have boarding facilities. For colleges, the policy for expansion of existing hostel facilities was also fuzzy.
“In 2011, there was a change in policy. Schools and colleges were allowed to create and expand hostels within their premises. But then in 2017, for getting permission for additional floor area ratio (FAR, floor area ratio is the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built), the administration declared that charges will be imposed,” said Harmeet Mamik, president, Independent School Association.
Under the policy, the administration allowed educational institutions to opt for an increase in FAR for additional construction on their premises. The policy allowed for the construction of hostels by availing an additional FAR from 0.5 to 0.75.
While the UT allowed the additional FAR for educational institutions, it didn’t fix the charges for availing the same. Several educational institutions applied for the same but in the absence of rules regarding charges to be levied, the policy became defunct. Last year, several school representatives met with the UT adviser and consequently, a committee was setup to fix the charges.
Finally in 2019, the charges were notified and fixed at ₹3,400 per square feet.
“At 17 times the existing charges of ₹200 per sq ft for additional FAR, the policy became financially unworkable for educational institutions and for other sectors like industry as well,” said Pankaj Khanna, member of the UT administrator’s advisory council.
“Administration should revisit the archaic policies, which were designed for a city of 5 lakh people. Now, the city of 12 lakh, which is also an educational hub, needs a policy framework in tune with changing requirements,” said Khanna.
