Chandigarh member of Parliament Kirron Kher met different sections of city residents at BJP’s city headquarters in Sector 33 on Tuesday.
This included the former residents of Colony Number 4 that was demolished on May 1.
The evicted residents submitted a memorandum to the MP, seeking allotment of alternative housing for people who were left out by the administration despite being eligible.
The colony’s demolition had left over 10,000 people displaced and many of them have claimed rightful claim to alternative housing.
Coordination committee seeks resolution of long-pending issues
Earlier, a delegation of the Chandigarh Coordination Committee, a joint forum of traders, industrialists and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), also met Kher.
As the MP heads the 11-member committee on property matters, constituted after Supreme Court directions, they sought her intervention to solve their long-pending issues.
The members submitted that as the conversion of leasehold plots to freehold was under the active consideration of the Chandigarh administration and Union ministry of home affairs, a user-friendly policy be announced at the earliest to help clear property litigations.
They demanded regularisation of certain need-based changes and reasonable penalty charges for remaining violations, and cancellation of misuse notices issued by the UT Estate Office. The property holder must also be allowed to remove the violations before any fine was imposed, they said.
{{/usCountry}}They demanded regularisation of certain need-based changes and reasonable penalty charges for remaining violations, and cancellation of misuse notices issued by the UT Estate Office. The property holder must also be allowed to remove the violations before any fine was imposed, they said.
{{/usCountry}}Through a memorandum, the members also requested for reinstating the original rate for availing of 0.75 to 1 floor area ratio (FAR) in industrial plots that was earlier ₹200 per square feet but had now been increased by 16 times.
Besides, members also submitted for reforms in Estate Office’s building branch and architecture department, rationalisation of collectors’ rates and withdrawal of unjustified fines and fees charged by CITCO on the sheds constructed and allotted by it.
Beopar Mandal demands ease of doing business
Senior functionaries of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal also met Kher to consider simplifying building bylaws in the upcoming meeting of the 11-member committee on May 12.
“The better facilities and bylaws for commercial buildings in neighbouring cities are more conducive for ease of doing business,” said president Charanjiv Singh. He also handed over a memorandum demanding conversion of leasehold commercial properties to freehold, regularisation of need-based changes and decrease in the exorbitant penalty proposed for building misuse through an amendment in the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952.
CBM chief spokesperson Diwakar Sahoonja said since commercial space in the city was limited, the bylaws must be framed to encourage startups and new businesses in the city.
Kher assured the delegation that she will take up these issues.