UT in a time warp

This is the status of more than 1,000 Shop-cum-Flat (SCF) owners,who are being ‘forced’ to stay in these dilapidated 50-year-old structures without the right to have their residential areas’ revised building plans approved.

In 2003,the same permissions was granted to those SCF owners who wanted to convert their premises into Shop-cum-Offices (SCO)s. The SCF owners,on the other hand,are running from pillar to post to have their residential areas reconstructed according to their needs.

Those affected with this alleged discrimination on the part of the Chandigarh Administration include SCF owners living across Sector 7 to Sector 30.

The bias is evident from the fact that SCF owners are only allowed to have toilets on the ground floor of their plots and not on any of the two upper floors. Besides,while the SCOs owners were permitted to shift the staircase to the front side of the premises,the SCF owners can have a staircase only on the rear side.

The Chandigarh Administration allowed extra coverage and approval to have their plots’ building plans revised to those SCF owners who wanted to convert their plots into SCOs. These landlords were asked to pay the conversion charges,besides extra coverage charges,according to their needs. The Administration then approved their revised building plans. Such plot owners now use their first and second floors commercially,while the SCF owners are being made to languish in their outdated constructions.

Repeated representations to UT Administrator General SF Rodrigues (Retd) in his public-hearing sessions and meetings with the concerned officials on the issue have not yielded any results,rue SCF owners of 23 such sectors in the city.

Ravinder Verma,an SCF owner,said: “The Administration is bent upon providing incentives to SCO owners. They are allowed to use their first and second floors commercially and have their revised building plans approved besides a modernised construction. Why the bias then with the SCF owners? There are families staying in such premises (SCF) which have obviously grown in size and number in the last 50 years. Their needs and requirements are bound to increase. Even the structures have lived their lives. If anything untoward happens because of the outdated constructions and old building plans,will the Administration be ready to take the responsibility?”

SCFs were allowed in Chandigarh in 1959 with the purpose to allow a trader run his business from the ground floor and stay at the first or second floor of the plot. The 1959-model building plans continue to remain in force till date.

“By allowing SCFs to be converted into SCOs and that too in a box-type structure,the Administration is spoiling the external symmetry of the shopping lanes in the city. Wouldn’t it look awkward wherein one shopping lane consists of box-type structures and others 50-year-old SCFs? We were asked to submit our requirements to the officials,which we did,but has been done about it,” another SCF owner rued.

Sanjay Kumar,UT Chief Administrator (Capital Project),said: “The relaxations are only for the SCOs. If SCF owners also want to revise their building plans,they can do so by getting it converted into SCOs. Otherwise they can go ahead with changes that are permitted under the Architectural Control. Moreover,we cannot take any call on their request till the elections are over.”