It took the tragic loss of lives of three young women in a Chandigarh paying guest (PG) accommodation blaze for the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to finally announce a safety audit of such facilities.
The move comes seven years after GMADA revised its paying guest policy, making PG registration mandatory, failing which properties could be seized.
TIME TO BE GIVEN FOR REGISTERING PGS
“We will be conducting a safety audit and make sure that all PGs running in Mohali are registered with GMADA. We will give people some time for registration, failing which we will be forced to resume their properties,” said Rajesh Dhiman, additional chief administrator, GMADA.
Last year, GMADA issued a notice making it mandatory for PG owners to register their business with it within 30 days from the date of notice. Failure to abide by the same, the notice stated, would result in shutting down of the premises and consequent sealing of the business, but no action was taken.
GMADA has the power to seize the properties after issuing show cause notices.
A majority of the unregistered PGs run in phases 2, 4, 5, 7, 3B1, 3B2 and Shahimajra, Mataur, Kumbra and Sohana villages.
SALIENT POINTS OF THE GMADA POLICY
Minimum usable area for one paying guest accommodation should be 50 square feet, with adequate provision for toilets as per the norms of the public health department.
The premises being let out should not be less than 7.5 marla (about 2,000 square feet), with a part of it used by the owner himself.
The owners, as per the policy, are responsible for maintaining discipline, peace and social harmony in the PG premises and in the neighbourhood.
DEPUTY MAYOR WANTS SSP, GMADA TO ACT AGAINST ILLEGAL PGs
Mohali MC deputy mayor Manjit Singh Sethi has written to the senior superintendent of police and the chief administrator, GMADA, to take strict action against illegal PGs.
Law and order problems were caused because of the PGs, Sethi wrote, but no action had been taken by the authorities concerned, which was a cause for concern.
Property owners were not registering PGs as they wanted to avoid paying the commercial power and water charges levied on such units. Many were also signing lease rent agreements with their PGs to avoid registering the facilities.
IN KHARAR
About a 100 students were found packed in three paying guest facilities (PG) with more than four living in a room during inspections by Kharar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Himanshu Jain on Monday.
The SDM said that three teams set up for the inspection had checked three facilities in Kharar, Kurali, and Nayagaon. “Notices will be issued,” he said.
