Rights body demands amendments in master plan

Chandigarh Nagarik Vikas Manch has demanded the UT Administration to make amendments in the Master Plan 2031 relating to allocation of land for the homeless and the oustees from whom the Administration had acquired land of 23 villages. The organisation,headed by former mayor Surinder Singh,also demanded the implementation of the Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act of 2006 in the city. “City based entrepreneurs have to regularly pay fines for numerous violations,which would be defunct once the Act is implemented,” Singh said.

The organisation alleged that the benefits under the rehabilitation scheme of the Chandigarh Housing Board,that was framed in 1996,has not reached the oustees. It claimed that more than 1,000 acre of acquired land is lying unused by the Administration. Out of this,around 500 acre of land should be kept reserved for the oustees in order to to provide them with residential and commercial plots,the organisation said.

Apart form this,the organisation also demanded that another 300 acre of land should be kept reserved for the homeless. “Under its rehabilitation scheme,the Administration is planning to provide 25,000 flats to slum dwellers. Similarly,we feel that the Administration should also reserve land under the Master Plan for the homeless,” said Surinder Singh.

Another amendment in the Master Plan that the organisation sought was to regularise the existing construction outside the lal dora of all the 23 villages in the city.