Residents flag congestion due to MC decision on CLU

Patiala, September 28

Residents here have flagged the process of allowing change of land use (CLU) of residential properties to commercial by the MC, resulting in overcrowding of already congested areas.

As a matter of fact, a number of commercial pockets have come up in the city within residential areas in recent years. For instance, the Municipal Corporation in 2021 declared the road behind a hospital on the Bhupindra road a commercial area. The decision was taken citing financial benefit to the MC.

A salon owner in Model Town said, “Such practice has been going on for a long time now. The MC had declared properties adjacent to the Radha-Krishan temple in Model Town as commercial properties. This was done without checking whether the area could support such an inflow of traffic at the commercial establishments. Now, with new construction going on in the area, the said pocket of the city has already become congested.”

A resident of the area said, “The new commercial construction is leaving the area highly congested.”

Another resident said that the Municipal Corporation had previously announced a number of pockets of the city as commercial hubs on the pretext that people have raised commercial properties on the existing residential plots. “But the same exposed the corporation’s building branch’s inability to put a check on illegal construction. Such illegal constructions are rampant across the city, which result in increased traffic flow in the said area. The Corporation should allow this on the basis of the need of the area and the possibility in terms of traffic flow, congestion, and other factors.”

When contacted, Municipal Town Planner (MTP) Neeraj Bhatti said the road adjoining the temple was declared commercial before he joined the office.