Now, tenants can buy MC-owned shops in Ambala

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ambala, December 10

The state government has offered tenants to buy the municipal council’s rented shops in the Ambala Cantonment.

As per the offer, the tenants will be charged the present collector’s rate to get the properties transferred in their names on freehold basis after executing the conveyance and registration deeds.

An announcement to this effect was made by Local Government Minister Anil Vij while accepting the long-pending demand of the MC’s tenants in the town’s one of the oldest commercial area — Rai and Randhawa markets in the excised area of Ambala Sadar.

The offer will benefit at least 54 shopkeepers who had rented the shops from the civic body almost seven decades ago. While 182 tenants had already bought the shops when the government had made a similar offer in 2003 while the remaining 54 tenants had for various reasons could not avail the offer at that time.

Having left out of the offer to turn owners, the tenants of 54 MC shops had been pressing hard on Vij to once again give them a chance to own the shops. On Vij’s direction, an order to this effect was issued by the Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Local Bodies, Haryana.

As per the present Collector’s rate of Rs 38,500 per square yard in the Rai Market area, the total cost of a single shop, measuring 15.55 square yards, will come to Rs 5,98,675. However, 110 shops in 2003 were sold at that time’s collector’s rate of Rs 6,000 per square yard, which had worked out to be Rs 93,300. “Before buying the shops, the tenants have to clear all their dues and clear the encroachments, if any, to become eligible for availing the offer to turn owners,” a senior officer said.