Seeking revocation of Change of Land Use (CLU) notices served to shopkeepers amid the pandemic, a group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors met Mayor Balkar Sandhu at his camp office on Thursday and demanded a reduction in CLU and development charges.
Led by leader of BJP councillors in MC General House, Sunita Rani, the councillors rued that rather than providing any relief to residents, the state government is harassing them by issuing notices to recover pending CLU charges.
The BJP councillors accused the MC of serving notices without checking its record. They said that notices are being served to decade-old shops when CLU norms were not even notified.
Councillor Sunita Rani said, “We have demanded that the mayor should call a house meeting on the issue. The recovery of CLU charges should be deferred for two years and the rates should also be revised to bring some relief to residents. If the MC does not stop harassing the public, we will be forced to take to roads in protest.”
Former councillor Inder Aggarwal said that they have also demanded that MC should drop the town planning scheme in the city, which will also bring down the CLU charges. Also, the hike in development charges for residential properties, wherein the charges have been increased from 174 per yard to 518 per yard, should be rolled back, he added.
{{/usCountry}}Former councillor Inder Aggarwal said that they have also demanded that MC should drop the town planning scheme in the city, which will also bring down the CLU charges. Also, the hike in development charges for residential properties, wherein the charges have been increased from 174 per yard to 518 per yard, should be rolled back, he added.
{{/usCountry}}Mayor Balkar Sandhu said, “We will table the issue in the upcoming MC house meet. We also want that CLU charges should be reduced but the final decision has to be taken by the state government.”
Earlier, senior deputy mayor, Sham Sundar Malhotra, Congress councillor-cum-chairman of Punjab State Industries and Exports Corporation (PSIEC) and shopkeepers in different parts of the city had also opposed the recovery of CLU charges amid the pandemic.