Crackdown on illegal PGs, 7 shut operations

Dushyant Singh Pundir
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 25

Three days after the fire incident in which three girl students lost their lives, seven owners of illegal paying guest (PG) accommodations today closed down their operations.

Till this evening, the UT Estate Office had received 17 complaints on its helpline against unauthorised PG accommodations. As many as 12 complaints were received from South subdivision, three from Central subdivision and two from East subdivision.

Following rigorous checking being carried out by teams constituted by all three SDMs, nearly 40 notices were issued for running illegal PG accommodations in various sectors in the past two days.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mandip Singh Brar also held a meeting with all resident welfare associations (RWAs) and officials of the Administration to get a feedback about illegal PGs and action to be taken to tackle mushrooming of such accommodations.

While emphasising the safety of life, the DC directed that every PG has to be registered and failure to do so would result in action by the Administration. He further informed that the PGs would be subjected to annual checks and would also require a fire NOC. The DC also warned that strict action would be taken against the properties where PGs were found to be flouting norms.

During the interaction, the registered PG owners assured the DC that they were ensuring all safety standards in their PGs in accordance with the norms.

The DC further informed that a special desk had been set up at the Estate Office for the registration of PGs. He also directed the Assistant Estate Officer (AEO) to ensure smooth facilitation for registration of PG accommodations which fulfilled the norms.

He also called upon the RWAs to sensitise people and ask them to report any illegal PGs on the helpline number 1860-1802067.

Among other officials present on the occasion were ADC Sachin Rana, SDM (Central) Nazuk Kumar, SDM (South) Satish Kumar Jain, SDM (East) Sudhanshu Gautam and Assistant Estate Officer Manish Kumar Lohan.

Three girl students were killed and two others injured in a fire inside a congested paying guest accommodation in Sector 32-D on Saturday afternoon. The residential building was found violating fire safety norms.