Lukewarm response to PUDA’s high-rise flats

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 23

Coming as another jolt for the PUDA’s 22-storeyed multi-tower apartments scheme, 15 applicants out of the barely 78 who had applied for the 490 flats have withdrawn from it.

The revelation came in reply to an RTI application filed by an activist and Congress leader Sanjay Sehgal with regard to the information he had sought from officials regarding the much-publicised “Splendid Heights” scheme on old Jail site.

The PIO-cum-superintendent of the Jalandhar Development Authority has said that while 78 applications had been received, including 19 for the 4BHK and 59 for the 3BHK flats, three of them from among 4BHK applicants and 12 from 3 BHK applicants have moved an application for the refund of their earnest money.

Rs 1.01 cr already spent on scheme

PUDA has, in all, received Rs 3.5 crore as earnest money from the applicants and intends to earn about Rs 24.96 crore from the scheme. Even before it is to take off, officials have already spent Rs 1.01 crore for design, publicity and other expenses. PUDA has already roped in Mohali-based Syal and Associates for preparing the structural design of the total 832 proposed flats in the complex for an amount of Rs 21.8 lakh. It has also tied up with Eco Laboratories and Consultants, another company in Mohali, for seeking environmental clearance, for which it is to pay an amount of Rs 4.22 lakh. The authority has already spent Rs 47.85 lakh for publicising the scheme through various media.

PUDA has mortgaged 8 properties for Rs 2,100 crore loan The RTI also reveals that PUDA has mortgaged eight properties across the state for availing a loan amount of Rs 2,100 crore, including the jail site. Loan worth Rs 400 crore has been taken from Punjab and Sind Bank Chandigarh against jail site, Mental Hospital at Amritsar and Green Park Enclave at Ludhiana. A loan amount of Rs 750 crore has been taken from Canara Bank Chandigarh as loan against PUDA Enclave, Jagraon, PUDA Enclave Budhlada and Rajpura Colony.

Further the Old DC and SSP office site at Jalandhar, Gandhi Vanita Ashram Jalandhar and PWD office at Patiala, too, have been mortgaged to avail a loan amount of Rs 350 crore from the Bank of Baroda, Mohali. The Old District Courts Ludhiana and Canal Colony site Ludhiana, too, have been pledged with the Bank of India, Chandigarh, to avail Rs 500 crore loan. The list pertains to properties of PUDA that have been mortgaged from February 2007 till November 2014.

PUDA PIO has claimed that an NOC has been taken from Punjab and Sind Bank Chandigarh before inviting applications for the mortgaged site for the proposed “Splendid Heights” scheme.

PUDA silent on news

Even as the RTI applicant had even sought information regarding flats for economically weaker sections (EWSs), he has only been told that the policy is on the website. On a question as to whether any recommendations for providing shelter to homeless, EWS, LIG, MIG groups had come from the MLAs of Jalandhar, the reply has been negative.