Chandigarh employees move High Court over delay

Dushyant Singh Pundir
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 29

The UT Employees CHB Housing Welfare Society has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions for time-bound implementation of the UT Employees Self-Financing Housing Scheme-2008.

In a civil miscellaneous application, petitioners Phool Kumar Saini and others submitted that despite the land having been earmarked for the scheme in 2009, the project has not commenced even as more than 10 years have passed.

Flats were to come up in Sector 52, 56

The scheme was launched in 2008 for the employees of the UT Administration, its boards, corporations, the High Court, etc. Nearly 7,811 applications were received for the allotment of flats and 3,930 of these were accepted after a draw in 2010. Nearly Rs29 crore was deposited by the allottees. The flats were to be constructed in Sectors 52 and 56 by the CHB.

On March 13 this year, the High Court had directed the Union Home Secretary to convene a meeting with the UT Adviser and the CHB Chairman to resolve the issue. Three representatives of the petitioners may also be associated in the proceedings, the court had ordered.

In compliance of the order, the Union Home Secretary convened a meeting on August 25 and called upon the UT Administration to prepare a comprehensive proposal keeping in view the provisions of law, the norms for transfer of land, a decision of the Union Cabinet, directions of the High Court and the interest of the allottees. It was also decided that the proposal should also be discussed with the allottees.

The petitioners stated that even as over two months had passed, the UT Administration did not start preparing the proposal, further delaying the implementation of the project and avoidable escalation in the cost.

The petitioners prayed that the Administration be directed to submit a compliance report of the order dated March 13 and to prepare and submit the proposal in terms of the decision taken in the meeting held on August 25.

The scheme was launched in 2008 for the employees of the UT Administration, its boards, corporations, the High Court, etc. Nearly 7,811 applications were received for the allotment of flats and 3,930 of these were accepted after a draw in 2010. Nearly Rs29 crore was deposited by the allottees. The flats were to be constructed in Sectors 52 and 56 by the CHB.

In 2012, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gave directions that land for any purpose must not be disposed of below the market value. This had enhanced the cost of the flats manifold and later, the scheme was shelved. It was revived after the employees took up the matter with MP Kirron Kher and the MHA allowed the UT Administration to transfer land to the CHB at the prevailing collector rate.

The employees then moved the High Court alleging that the CHB was charging five times the initial price of flats.