Chandigarh: Greed behind growth of illegal PGs

CHANDIGARH: The deadly blaze in a paying guest (PG) accommodation in Sector 32 has brought to light the dangers of cramping up students in cubicles and violating building and safety norms to make room for more tenants to make an extra buck.
With the 2013 amendment in the Chandigarh building bylaws allowing even 7.5 marla houses to keep PGs — earlier only 10 marlas and above could offer their place — this business is booming in the city. Sources said around 500 illegal PGs are operating in the city. Shockingly, only 25 PG accommodations are registered with the UT estate office — a practice that is mandatory.
By not registering PGs, building owners are also evading commercial water and power charges. They continue to pay domestic water and power charges, which are very less as compared to commercial charges. The estate office can even impose penalty on the building owners for violating rules. According to the rates of misuse, for non-permitted trade in the commercial category, the rate of penalty is Rs 8 per square foot while in the industrial category it is Rs 10 per square foot.
The issue of illegal PGs was also raised in the MC house meeting last year, but municipal commissioner K K Yadav had said this was not under their purview and the estate office was dealing with it. Recently, the estate office had conducted a survey, issuing notices to the violators but to no avail.