78-year-old in Chandigarh gets penalty of 3.81 crore for not possessing document he applied five years ago

Anil Mehan, who owns a house in Sector 38 and has a disability as well, has been struggling to get the OC from the Estate Office.

Pallav Mukherjee, architect for Mehan, stated how they had been struggling for the OC and now they have been issued a penalty for not having the same for Rs 3.81 crore in view of violations which included “solar heating not connected”. The resident also submitted a representation at various administrative levels.

Mehan told how the officials from the Estate Office, Chandigarh have not responded to their request for the OC
which according to him “has been hanging in the boondocks for more than half a decade now”.

“For years they kept dilly-dallying and didn’t issue the OC. Officials instead issued inane and petty observations such as ‘solar heating system not connected to the building below’ and ‘debris in the rainwater harvesting tank’ — knowing well that these objections were  non-maintainable,” Mukherjee said.

Explaining the sequence of events, the architect said that the plot was purchased in an auction by the Estate Office. “We follow it up with submitting a set of building plans for sanction  — which were given the usual treatment of delay and inane objections. And there was nothing wrong with the design or other drawings — just clerical objections to delay matters,” he specified.

Mukherjee mentioned how after several months of delay and “needless harassment” they finally got the sanction letter from the SDOB, but struggled for the OC.

“We provided for the solar heating system, as well as the rainwater harvesting system — to which they again had inane objections such as a pipe not connected or the absorption well filled with debris,” he said.

Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav while speaking to The Indian Express said he would get the case “examined and expedited”.