The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) is likely to consider a proposal to provide relief to allottees of small flats under rehabilitation schemes who have failed to pay rent.
According to officials, the issue would be taken up during a meeting of the Board of Directors of the CHB scheduled to be held soon.
Instead of cancelling the allotment, the rent defaulters were likely to be given an opportunity to pay the pending dues in instalments, stated the officials.
The CHB had recently intensified its action against defaulters and cancelled the allotment of nearly 90 beneficiaries of the Small Flats Scheme-2006 and the Affordable Rental Housing Complex, who have failed to pay their rent.
Nearly 13,000 allottees have defaulted on rent payments. Notices had been issued to those whose allotments had been cancelled to vacate their flats.
These flats are located in Maloya, Dhanas and other parts of the city and these housing units were allotted under various rehabilitation schemes.
According to officials, the total outstanding amount has reached nearly Rs 52 crore, including Rs 25 crore in unpaid rent and nearly Rs 27 crore in accumulated interest due to prolonged non-payment over several years.
The housing units were allotted under a licence-based system, requiring beneficiaries to pay a minimum monthly rent. However, many allottees failed to deposit even the basic rent over extended periods, making the dues run into lakhs per household.
Long-pending demand of allottees for regularisation of need-based changes in the dwelling units would also come up for discussion in the Board meeting before finalising the report, stated the officials.
The UT Administration had recently constituted a fresh eight-member committee headed by the CHB Chief Executive Officer to review and recommend need-based changes in CHB dwelling units.
In January this year, the UT Administration had constituted an 11-member committee to review the policy on need-based changes notified on January 3, 2023. It was put on hold following the SC order on January 10, 2023. The committee recommended that the policy be implemented with certain exclusions. Out of the 28 clauses in the 2023 policy, the committee dropped four. However, the house owners have been opposing the January 2023 notification, claiming it reversed previous relaxations and categorised these as violations. CHB allottees have demanded the withdrawal of the policy and the provision of a comprehensive alternative.
Over the past four decades, CHB has constructed around 68,000 flats across categories, with nearly 80% having some form of structural alteration.
The other issues to come up for discussion in the meeting would be the development of IT Park and construction of high-rise buildings on vacant land of the CHB.
High-rises, plots at IT Park and group housing societies in the city’s periphery have been proposed in the draft amendments to the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031 released by the UT Administration recently.
The proposed amendments focus on promotion of high-rise government housing in Phases II and III, modern residential development for general group housing in Phase III. The UT Administration has proposed shifting from multi-storey flats to plotted development at IT Park to bypass wildlife clearance hurdles.
