Residents turn cold shoulder to UT conversion scheme

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh November 23

The conversion policy announced by the Chandigarh Administration for leasehold properties has received a lukewarm response. Not many people have shown interest in getting their residential properties converted from leasehold to freehold so far.

The administration had notified the new conversion rates on October 25 this year. Since then, the Chandigarh Housing Board has processed only one case for conversion.

While allottees of CHB flats are adopting a wait-and-watch policy, the Estate Office is yet to finalise the application form for conversion.

Sources said it had been nearly a month since the UT Administration announced the conversion rates, the Estate Office was still to come out with the application form for the purpose.

Though the CHB sold more than 300 forms since the announcement of the scheme two months ago by MP Kirron Kher, not many came forward to submit these.

Sources said only one case had been processed for conversion so far.

JD Gupta, a property consultant, said the much-awaited policy failed due to the high conversion rates. He said one could imagine the poor response as 25,000 flats of the CHB and 10,000 residential properties of the Estate Office were leasehold units.

Roshan Lal, who owns a CHB flat, wanted to know why he should pay a whopping sum of over Rs 5 lakh for getting his flat converted into freehold, which he had bought for just Rs 80,000.

As the Administration has calculated the conversion charges on the basis of the prevailing collector rates, the charges have shot up by 50 to 55 times.

The conversion fees for the CHB flats have been fixed from 2,11,800 to Rs 5,27,100 depending upon the category of the flat. The applicants wishing to get their CHB flats converted will also be charged processing fees in addition to the conversion fees.

City BJP president Sanjay Tandon said he had already taken up the matter with UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore and sought reduction in the rates. The Administrator assured him of having a relook into the charges, he added.

City Congress president Pradeep Chhabra said the conversion policy announced by MP Kirron Kher with much fanfare proved a failure. City residents rejected the policy as conversion rates were too high, he added.

Former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said he has been consistently saying that the 55-time increase in the rates was very high. These should be nominal so that all property owners could go for the conversion scheme. The cold response to the scheme indicated that the decision to increase the rates manifold was wrong.

Leaderspeak

I have already taken up the matter with UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore and sought reduction in the conversion rates. He has assured me of having a relook into the charges.

Sanjay Tandon, city BJP president

}The conversion policy announced by MP Kirron Kher with much fanfare has proved to be a failure. City residents have rejected the policy as conversion rates are too high. Rs

Pradeep Chhabra, city Cong chief