A 70-YEAR-OLD owner of paying guest accommodation in Sector 20, Chandigarh, has filed a civil suit at the district court, seeking directions for the Chandigarh Administration to restrain it from sealing PG accommodations and lodging FIRs for not registering PGs without legal notices. He also sought a minimum of three months' time to register PG as per the revised policy of February 26, 2020. The civil suit has been filed in the court of Lovejinder Kaur, Civil Judge (Junior Division), by Naresh Chander Chadha, a resident of Sector 20 A, Chandigarh, who is a retired manager of Allahabad Bank. The court has asked the Chandigarh Administration to file a reply on the next date of hearing on March 17. The petitioner has submitted that Chandigarh is a hub of education institutions and training centres. Students from all over India come and get admissions here. Chandigarh does not have hostel facilities for accommodating so many students. Chandigarh also does not have dhabas or cheap rasois where such students can have their meals. In such a situation, the Chandigarh Administration failed to provide basic necessities to its visitors. Therefore, landlords came forward and offered to provide accommodation, food, and furniture at reasonable rates. The petitioner alleged the Chandigarh Administration could not frame a proper policy for such PGs except an order of 2006. Landlords who have applied for registration with the Chandigarh Administration had to run from pillar to post for years to get their PGs registered. Chadha alleged that the Chandigarh Administration remained a silent spectator to the mushrooming of PGs. Thousands of PGs were providing food, security, and safety to students without registration but hardly any notices were issued to them for not registering their PGs. "Of those few who got notices and filed replies are yet to finalise their cases as for years they have been getting only dates from SDM's office. The policy of Chandigarh Administration that PG can be run only in that building where the owner resides himself is being flouted openly for years. Businessman/middleman/touts took up PG business and started minting money," the petitioner alleged. The petitioner contended that the Chandigarh Administration woke up recently when three girl students lost their precious lives in a fire in Sector 32, Chandigarh. The Administration hurriedly finalised a revised policy and the next day the police swing into action and started registering cases against erring PGs, locking and sealing them, ignoring the plight of students who resided in such premises which were sealed, and no proper arrangements for their rehabilitation were made. Chadha stated that due to sudden action of police and registering FIRs against owners of such buildings made PG owners scared. They closed their PGs without any prior notice to their occupants and students who were preparing for their exams/competitions came on roads. The Chandigarh Administration has not given any prior notice or given time for registration of PGs to date, and the Chandigarh Administration is bent upon spoiling the careers of students who are the worst sufferers and becoming homeless
