Govt notification fails to define PG accommodation

Nikhil Bhardwaj

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 25

With the district and police administration turning a blind eye towards the flourishing business of the paying guest (PG) in the city, the number of PGs has multiplied in the past few years.

Although the PGs have been extending huge convenience to students studying in educational institutions, their owners are charging exorbitant rates from the students.

The PG business is mushrooming to the extent that people have constructed separate buildings which are rented out to dozens of students, proving to be a lucrative affair for the former. Despite the PG business growing by leaps and bounds in the region, the district administration is unaware about the money involved in the unregulated trade. It has never conducted any survey about the number of PGs running in the city.

Most of the PG accommodations have come up on the Ladhewali road, Workshop Chowk, Defence colony, Choti Baradari, Kabir Nagar, Maqsudan, Shahapur and around the university in Phagwara.

In many areas, special PGs have come up which are specifically being allotted to foreign students with bucks in mind. Some have also created a special kitchen for the purpose.

The district administration, the municipal corporation and the police administration are responsible in one way or other to check if the PGs are flouting any rules and regulations.

Govt notification on property tax fails to define PG

The MC has not been taking any action against the PGs as the notification of the Punjab Government on property tax is unclear whether a PG comes under residential or non-residential properties, whether property tax is required to be levied at commercial or non-commercial rates. As per the notification of the Department of Local Government of the state issued in December 2014, it has only mentioned that on the building being used for non-residential purposes, a property tax to the tune of 7.5 per would be levied, but the notification is silent whether the ‘non-residential’ category comprises PGs. “Since there is no clarity in the notification of government regarding property tax on the PGs, we are not forcing any PG owner to pay property tax at commercial rates, hence they are being charged at residential rates only. We are also not aware about the number of PGs in the city and it is also tough to have a survey on this,” a senior MC official said. He further said that even if the MC starts levying commercial property tax rates on PGs, the ultimate burden would be borne by students only.

Orders issued to Commissionerate, police

Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar KK Yadav, when questioned about the flourishing unregulated business of paying guests, said he was aware of the matter and had also been issuing prohibitory orders under powers vested in him under Section 144 of the CrPC from time to time in which landlords had been asked to register tenants at the police stations concerned.

“I recently told the Jalandhar rural police to implement orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and will also soon ask the city police to ponder over the instructions so that the police would have entire records of tenants living in the district whenever required,” Yadav added. About the commercial or non-commercial activity, the DC said it was the responsibility of the MC to check which tax could be levied on them.

‘Commercial connection required for PGs’

Deputy Chief Engineer PSPCL Gopal Sharma said a few months ago, the department had taken action against certain PG owners who were using a domestic power connection in a fully commercial building being used as a paying guest accommodation and later their meters were converted into the commercial category. “If a landlord has rented out accommodation to two or three persons, he can be exempted from paying commercial rates, but if a person has rented out the whole multi-floor building to students as PG, he has to take commercial connection from the PSPCL,” Sharma said, adding that now people seemed to have been abiding by the PSPCL rules and no recent case had come to the fore.

Most PGs not registered with police

Sources said most of the PGs were not registered with the police. As per the DCP orders on tenant registration, the landlord or the PG owner had to register the complete details of tenants living in his accommodation. DCP Jalandhar Rajinder Singh when asked if orders issued by him under Section 144 of the CrPC regarding the registration of tenants living in the PGs were being implemented in letter and spirit, the DCP said that he had been keeping a check over the violations and till date, no violation had come to the fore. If anyone defies orders, action was likely against him under Section 188 of the IPC.