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200 illegal guest houses in Chandigarh villages to be shut down
MC commissioner has approved the estate wing file and necessary action will follow.
Municipal corporation (MC) commissioner KK Yadav has ordered the closure of about 200 guest houses operating illegally in several villages here after the estate wing recommended the move in a report.
Yadav said on Thursday that he had approved the estate wing file and necessary action would follow.
A one-month closure notice will be served to owners in the next few days based on the report, estate officer Tilak Raj said.
He said action had been taken in accordance with Chandigarh Rural Inhabitations, Construction and Reconstruction Building Bylaws for villages, notified in 2017.
“The premises were illegal as the rules categorically stated that guest houses can’t be constructed in villages,” Raj said.
About 106 guest houses were issued closure notices two years ago but 59 of them moved the Punjab and Haryana high court.
“While the court has maintained status quo in this matter, there is no bar on departmental action against other illegal guest houses,” he added.
According to the estate officer, approximately 200 such units were identified in the latest survey. Notices would be issued to all of them as well as the 47 others identified earlier.
All the guest houses were in lal dora (habitation) land. The “the jurisdiction outside lal dora falls within the purview of the UT administration,” he said.
A majority of the guest houses were in six villages, including Burail, Attawa, Kajheri, DadumMajra, Dhanas and Maloya.
Sources in the department said most of these guest houses had been built in narrow lanes
and did not comply with fire safety norms applicable to commercial and institutional
buildings.
No parking space was available and vehicles were parked haphazardly in front of buildings, blocking traffic.
Though it was a good move to close the guest houses, the corporation should inquire into how these guest houses came up despite bylaws prohibiting them, said RTI activist RK Garg.
“The problem,” he pointed out “was that there is no proper surveillance either at the level of MC or UT administration in villages, leading to mushrooming of such buildings.”
A major tragedy could have taken place in one of these guest houses, Garg said, as no building bylaws or fire norms were followed.
Meanwhile, the MC chief also ordered the estate department to check mushrooming of illegal PG accommodations in villages
