Amendments to building bylaws pending, CHB sends 50 notices daily for violations

There are around 70,000 houses constructed by the CHB, including 48,000 rehabilitation tenements. Around 90 per cent of these have some violation. The residents term these “need-based changes” and have been demanding regularisation.

Rajat Malhotra, general secretary of the CHB Residents’ Federation, says, “Every day around 50 notices for cancellation of allotment are being received. The residents are panicked. We had taken up the issue with the officials and were assured that the matter would be resolved soon and no notices would be sent. But the notices have not stopped.”

He says that the CHB should take a decision on amendments to bylaws and allow need-based changes. “We have submitted a list of permissible changes to the CHB. Once these are allowed, most of the houses would be saved. The notices that have already been sent should be cancelled,” he adds.

MP Kirron Kher had recently stated that changes in bylaws would soon be made. She had said that the changes demanded by the residents had been approved by the Architecture Department and the nod from the Finance Secretary was awaited.

CHB chairman B S Bhalla says that the recommendations for the change in bylaws had been sent to the UT Administration. “I personally feel that if changes are made within the houses by the residents and these are not endangering lives, these should be allowed. However, the decision on the bylaws is still pending. No encroachment on government land will be tolerated,” he said.

The CHB had sent its recommendations to the administration in 2010 and again in 2013. A final decision is still awaited.