124 put on notice for illegal PG facilities in Chandigarh
Chandigarh has only 20 registered PG accommodations; most violations in southern sectors
The UT estate office has issued notices to 124 house owners for running paying guest facilities illegally. Most of those put on notice are in southern sectors: 21, 22, 33, 34, 35, 43 and 44. The violators have been given 15 days to respond, following which action will be initiated against them, said assistant estate officer Manoj Khatri.
The notices were issued after some residents submitted a complaint against the PG menace in the city with the deputy commissioner (DC)’s office.
Mushrooming business
According to the estate office’s records, only 20 PG accommodations are registered in the city, while the remaining are operating illegally. Most of these are is Sectors 15-16, 18-22, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34-38. With limited number of hostels in educational institutes and ever-increasing rent in residential areas, PG accommodations have emerged as a preferred choice of students coming from different states — Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh — to pursue higher education in the city.
Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman of the Federation of Sectors’ Welfare Association of Chandigarh, said it is a serious lapse on the part of the UT administration that so many PG facilities are running illegally in the city.
“We have been receiving so many complaints daily. In the absence of police verification, who knows who all are staying at these facilities,” he said.
Spate of violations
A PG facility can operate only in a house with an area of at least 7.5 marla. It is mandatory to get it registered and thereon pay commercial rates for water and electricity.
However, in the city many PGs are running even in low-income group houses. The complaint to the DC’s office stated that four to five people are staying in a single room at these accommodations.