Centre’s no to Delhi solution for changes in CHB houses

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 30
In a setback to nearly 68,000 allottees of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has ruled out allowing need-based changes in dwelling units in the city on the Delhi pattern.
Raising questions in the Lok Sabha, city MP Manish Tewari asked whether the CHB was allowing need-based changes in the housing board schemes on the Delhi pattern of 1999, for which repeated representations had been made by residents over the past 25 years. Also, why the board was diffident about bringing a one-time amnesty scheme to regularise all need-based changes in the CHB dwelling units given that 68,000 residential dwelling units had carried out such alterations.
Replying to his questions, Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home, stated that certain need-based changes were allowed through relaxation of Chandigarh Building Rules, 2017, by the CHB. “The Chandigarh Administration considered the requests in 2022 and decided that the said requests on the Delhi pattern cannot be allowed since Chandigarh is a planned city with unique architectural character. Also, the city is highly vulnerable to earthquakes as it falls in Seismic Zone-IV and violations may pose a threat to human life and public property,” he stated.
Tewari also questioned whether the CHB was facing a financial crisis and sought the details of the budget estimates, revised budget and actuals for the CHB during the past five years, etc.
The minister replied that the CHB was not facing any financial crisis. The board did not receive any grant/budget from the Central Government/Chandigarh Administration. However, its budget was based on the revenue generated from its own resources. “Funds are sanctioned, released and utilised as per projects undertaken,” he said, adding that in the past five years, a total of 13 meetings of the board had been held and the first meeting was convened on July 16, 2019, and the last meeting on May 9, 2023.
Replying to another question, the minister said in the past five years, out of the four projects sanctioned by the board, one was completed and three were put on hold due to administrative reasons.
Residents of CHB houses have been demanding for relaxation with regard to need-based changes on the Delhi pattern, as owners of more than 90 per cent houses have carried out such changes in their units.

MP had written to Purohit

Tewari had also raised the issue of need-based changes with then Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit. In a recent letter to him, Tewari wrote, “Owing to the growing needs of families and restrictions on owning multiple units, many allottees have made need-based changes. It is estimated that over 60,000 allottees, constituting nearly 20% of the city population, have carried out such modifications. The allottees have been compelled to make these changes due to expanding family requirements.”
He had proposed the Administration must implement a one-time settlement scheme similar to the Amnesty Scheme introduced by the Delhi MC in 1998-99, under which unauthorised constructions were regularised by charging affordable usage fee.
Until a satisfactory resolution is found, punitive action, such as demolition and cancellation notices, need to be put on a hold.

System adopted by six states
The refusal of the Centre to have a solution to the issue on the Delhi pattern is disappointing. This system, already adopted by six other states, is the only way fit to solve the problems of the CHB residents, 95% of whom are violators in the records of the Board. — Nirmal Datt, chairman of the CHB Residents’ Welfare Federation