Law on Building Misuse in Chandigarh: Withdraw proposed amendments, demands AAP

Chandigarh, April 20

The city unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded withdrawal of proposed amendments imposing hefty penalties for building violations/misuse under the Capital of Punjab (Development & Regulations) Act, 1952.

In a detailed communication to the Joint Secretary (Estate), city AAP president Prem Garg demanded that need-based changes be allowed in residential properties within zoning plans.

He said most people in the Industrial Area had made changes, which the UT Administration considered as building violations as per existing regulations.

However, such violations within the building in general were not creating any problem to the Administration, traffic or the neighborhood, but call for hefty penalties. Such violations should be allowed to be regularised.

The building bylaws, relaxations and penalties for violations/misuse should be on a par with the adjoining towns of Panchkula and Mohali.

For any violation or misuse, the owner first should be issued a show-cause notice and given time of at least two months to remove such violation or misuse.

If even after the expiry of the notice period, such a violation or misuse was not removed, the penalty should be imposed from the date of the expiry of such notice period only and that too after giving the owner/occupier a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

Imposing a hefty fine of Rs. 2,00,000 as a one-time penalty and Rs. 8,000 per day is 400 times of the existing penalty provisions.