CHB allottees vexed by delayed need-based change policy

They comprise 40% of the 6 lakh voters of Chandigarh and they are feeling ignored.

Resentment prevails among dwellers of most of the 60,000 Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) dwelling units who have been seeking a solution to the need-based changes policy that has been pending for a decade. Last December, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit said the authorities were in the process of reconsidering need-based changes in about 55,000 CHB houses and would frame a policy in this regard, but five months on, nothing has been done.

The CHB is a UT administration undertaking set up in 1976 to provide reasonably priced and quality housing to residents of Chandigarh. Today, however, 95% of the CHB dwelling units exhibit one form of building violation or another, including additional rooms and toilets, conversion of balconies into rooms, covering of courtyards, and even construction of stairs on government land.

A senior CHB officer says the matter is under consideration and it will be taken up after the model code of conduct is removed.

CHB Residents’ Federation president Nirmal Dutt says, “In the past decade, the issue (of need-based changes policy) has generated much heat and dust, but the solution has remained elusive. This time, we have coined a slogan, ‘Hum yaad rakhenge (We will remember), to drive home our point.”

Nearly 13,000 small flat owners of CHB, whose rent dues have piled up to ₹44 crore, are facing cancellation of allotment. The CHB has so far allotted more than 18,000 flats under its rehabilitation schemes.

These flats have been allotted for the sole occupation of the allottees and their families and cannot be sold or transferred. The flats are located in Sectors 49, 56, 38 West, Dhanas, Industrial Area, Mauli Jagran, Ram Darbar and Maloya under the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes.

The small flat owners have been seeking a permanent solution for a past decade.

Around 4,000 UT employees and their families are feeling cheated at the hands of the UT administration and political leaders. In March, the administration decided to scrap the 2008 Self-Financing Employee Housing Scheme, terming it unviable. Though two days after Purohit assured that the scheme would be revived, nothing has been done.

The UT administration had submitted an affidavit before the Punjab and Haryana high court, stating it would not go ahead with the housing scheme as it was unviable. Around 4,000 flats were to be built in Sectors 52, 53, and 56 by the CHB for government employees as a part of the scheme that has hit roadblocks since its launch 16 years ago.

Dr BP Yadav, the president of the UT Employees Housing Welfare Society, says, “Over 16 years after launching the Self-Financing Employee Housing Scheme for its employees, the UT administration has shelved the project due to a spike in land cost, shattering the hopes of hundreds of employees, some of who even died waiting for a flat.”

CHB is proving to be Chandigarh’s white elephant as it eats into taxpayers’ resources mostly to pay its 400-odd employees with no tangible output to show. The board has had no major venture in the works and no complete project to show in seven years. It has not convened its board meeting for the past year. Despite this, CHB employees continue to draw a salary, totalling ₹3.5 crore a month. Nearly 100 new employees were recruited over the past year.

The CHB office is housed in a five-star, seven-storeyed green building in Sector 9 that was constructed at a cost of ₹60 crore in March 2022.

Purohit put CHB’s ambitious Sector-53 General Housing Scheme on hold in August last year, terming it unnecessary. Consequently, the board cancelled the ₹200-crore tenders floated on August 2 last year for building 340 flats on nine acres.

The administrator also told CHB not to pursue another housing scheme at IT Park that has been caught in environmental clearance tangles.

In October last year, the Union ministry of environment and forests had refused to approve the scheme, featuring 728 flats in three categories, stating that the project site falls in the eco-sensitive zone of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. As a result, now, no housing scheme, either in the private or public sector, is in the works in the city.

What the candidates say

Congress candidate Manish Tewari says the BJP’s much-touted relaxation to residents who have made changes in CHB dwellings was a hollow promise. He assured dwellers of sorting out all issues on priority.

His rival from BJP, Sanjay Tandon, says the issues are under consideration. “The UT administrator has already assured dwellers of sorting them out. We will do it soon,” he adds.