7 months on, MC fails to act against hotels

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, October 17

The Municipal Corporation, it seems, has granted immunity to hotels, some of them with star rating, in the city over non-compoundable violations of building bylaws and misuse of parking spaces which were detected during an exhaustive survey of 109 hotels conducted by several teams set up by the Director, Local Government, Punjab in March 2017.

The MC (read building branch) has been sitting on a report on misuse of parking space, violations of building bylaws and standard design by as many as 45 hotels located in different parts of the city even after the special teams had indicted them and the then MC Senior Town Planner (STP) had also placed these facts on record in an official memo (715/STP/D) on March 28, 2017.

It was in response to a complaint by the Council of RTI Activists, through its president Rohit Sabharwal, alleging that a large number of hotels were misusing space earmarked for parking and had also violated building bylaws and standard design, that the Department of Local Government, Punjab had ordered a detailed survey of the defaulting hotels in the city.

Based on the survey report, the then STP had sent a category-wise report to the Chief Town Planner, Punjab, which mentioned that of 109 hotels surveyed by the teams, 41 had compoundable violations, three hotels had filed court cases, 20 had either been closed down or were non-operational while 45 had non-compoundable violations which had to be demolished as per provisions of Building Rules in force.

However, no follow-up action, as recommended by the STP, has been taken against the hotels which had non-compoundable violations and the illegally constructed portions or parking space (being misused for other purposes) had to be demolished.

An assistant town planner (ATP) of Zone D, who was also a member of the inspection teams, said he had no idea if any follow-up action was taken against any defaulting hotel for raising non-compoundable violation of building bylaws or misuse of parking space.

The Municipal Commissioner, Jaskiran Singh, said the building branch was short of staff and the matter had been taken up with the government to fill the vacant posts of ATPs, building inspectors and supporting staff to ensure proper regulations and enforcement of building bylaws in the city.

Hotels with non-compoundable violations

City Centre, Ghai, 9 Keys, Abhishek, Tower Le Classic, Rising Sun, Bhambi, 9-Inn, Hallmark, A Hotel, Aditya, Capital, Sarovar Portico, Classic, Friends Regency, Keys (Basement), Nanda, Maharaja Regency (Partition Wall), Lecester Square, Malwa, Nagpal Regency, Natraj, Neelkanth, Onn, Sartaj, Maharaja, Silver Stone, Vikrant, Akash Ganga, Amandeep, Ankit, Dhawan, Diamond, Greatwall, Harryton, Heaven, Khurana, Kushal, Las Vegas, Manzil, Mehmi, Noveena, Oasis, Royal Inn, Royal, Samran Guest House.

Detailed survey

It was in response to a complaint by the Council of RTI Activists, through its president Rohit Sabharwal, alleging that a large number of hotels were misusing space earmarked for parking and had also violated building bylaws and standard design, that the Department of Local Government, Punjab, had ordered a detailed survey of the defaulting hotels in the city.