UT to honour GPA from next week

UT Deputy Commissioner Brijendra Singh said: “The ambiguity is definitely under consideration. I have been asked to clear the situation and put up the note to the Administration. The previous instructions were also issued by the UT Administration,and if any change,the same would also be brought in by the senior officers in the Administration.”

Another senior officer of the UT Administration admitted that the anomaly was serious in nature and needed to be done away with. “The decision of not recognising the GPAs definitely needs to be corrected,” he said.

In stark contrast to the Estate Office,other wings of the Chandigarh Administration,including the Municipal Corporation and Chandigarh Housing Board,duly acknowledge GPAs.

“GPA is not an ordinary document,it holds an important value in transactions pertaining to properties and is completely legal,” said another senior official of the Chandigarh Administration.

According to the records available in the UT Estate Office,more than 20,000 properties in Chandigarh are sold on the GPA.

But according to the September 2009 notification,only the actual owner of the property was allowed to apply for a No-Objection-Certificate (NOC),which is a mandatory document for transfer of ownership of the property. The GPA holders were barred from applying for such NOCs. Since the property prices in the city are increasing every day,the actual owners of such properties,who had sold their properties on GPAs,had started demanding more money from the GPA holders,leading to a lot of inconvenience for the latter.

Under the prevailing system in Chandigarh,GPA holders are legally entitled to get building plans sanctioned,transfer the possession of property,pay bills,correspond with the estate office and execute conveyance and lease deeds of the property on behalf of the owner. However,they cannot sell the property until they obtain an NOC from the estate office.