Building a mess: Illegal is legal in Zirakpur

When the president of the Zirakpur municipal council president, Manvir Singh Gill, admitted in April that 50 residential projects had been delivered to customers without a completion certificate, he was highlighting a grave problem. Builders in town are endangering the lives of thousands of people by delivering incomplete projects. The local municipality too has been a mute witness to the goings-on.

The recent collapse of a four-storey residential building that was under construction at Peer Muchalla in Zirakpur has added to their worries. Gill’s admission came only after Hindustan Times reported extensively on the plight of homebuyers taking possession of apartments in incomplete housing projects.

The certificate is awarded to builders after authorities are satisfied that their project complies with mandatory standards and has been built according to approved plans. Builders can get water, electricity and drainage system for the project after getting the certificate.

A fire safety system at Royale Empire. (Sanr Arora/HT)

Rules flouted

Both the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act 1995 (PAPRA) and the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (section 272), make it mandatory for builders to get a completion certificate before offering possession.

Section 272 (1) stipulates that within a month of the completion of the building or execution of the work, a builder must get the certificate from the municipality. Section 272 (2) of the act also states that no person shall occupy or use any such building until permission has been granted for the same.

Municipal building bye-laws, under section 3.12, also stipulate that no person shall occupy or allow another person to occupy any new building or a part of it for any purpose until the local authority has certified it as complete and fit for use.

No certificate

A visibly perturbed Devinder Singh, who has been living in Silver City Extension next to the Ambala-Chandigarh national highway for more than a decade, said, “It is shocking that possession in this project was given from 2004 but so far the builder has not got a completion certificate. There are more than 200 families living here. The municipal council was supposed to take over the maintenance of this locality after five years of getting a completion certificate but it hasn’t done so because the builder does not have the certificate.”

The project is in a bad shape with roads in urgent need of repair and the rainwater drainage system partially built, leading to flooding of houses. The sewage treatment plant, too, doesn’t work, Singh adds. The developer on his part blames the municipality. Raj Kumar Sharma, general manager, Silver City Constructions Limited, said an application for the completion certificate had been given in 2008-2009 and all formalities had been completed, but “we are yet to receive it.”

Residents wonder how safe the buildings are. “There is no structural safety here as the building is still incomplete. There are no fire safety measures taken by the builder. The situation is not good,” said Reema Sood, a resident of Royal Empire.

A non-functional sewage treatment plant at Silver City Extension.

The developer of the project, Jeevan Garg, was not available for comments. The president of the resident welfare association of Chandigarh Enclave, Pradeep Sharma, complains, “We don’t have any certificate for the structural safety of the apartment tower. We don’t know whether the certificate for pollution clearance has been taken or if an NOC (no-objection certificate) has been taken from the fire department. What we are sure of is that the completion certificate hasn’t been taken so far and this makes us worry about the safety of more than 200 families living here.”

In this case, too, the developer blames the municipality for not issuing the certificate. Ajay Vir Sehgal, director, Chandigarh Colonisers Pvt Ltd, responding to allegations of the residents, said, “We delivered a fully completed project to residents. We applied for the completion certificate around four years back but are yet to receive it from the municipality even after completing all formalities. We are planning to take the council to court for this delay.” Unwilling to take the blame, the municipality in a recent newspaper ad-cum-notice put the onus on residents and homebuyers to check if their project had a completion certificate. It even stated that buyers would have no right to complain if they took possession in a project without a completion certificate. Gill’s response, interestingly, was the same as the one he made in April, “We are making a list of projects without a completion certificate.”