CHANDIGARH, Nov 19: Verandahs turned into rooms, one-room dwellings turned into three-room units, corridors turned into stores and exits through courtyard walls .. for many inhabitants of Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) dwellings, this amounts to making the best use of available space. But, in the process they are violating building bylaws and a violation is a violation even if "everybody does it".According to UT officials, minor violations are tolerated up to a point, but major violations attract heavy penalties and even demolition. A modification that affects the structural safety of the building, or that affects the right of way of any occupant, or that constitutes a liability on other occupants (such as blockage of light, ventilation etc.) is a major violation. Whether a particular violation is major or not is decided by a four-man committee headed by CHB Chief Executive Officer M. L. Sharma.Says a Sector 41-A house-owner: "Hardly any original allottees live here and there's hardly any building without a major violation. Officials do come for a survey once in a while, but nobody is bothered as the Administration can't demolish every house," he says. One of the most common violations in Sector 41 involves constructing a garage. At many places, people have encroached on public land. As a result, some electricity and telephone poles are found on the wrong side of the boundary walls.In Sectors 38 (including houses for the Water Works Department in 38-C), 40, 41, 45, 46 and 47, one, or even two additional storeys have been constructed atop duplex houses. In Sector 45-A flats, one can spot third floors currently under construction.Similar constructions are seen in Sector 29 CHB houses and factory workers' houses in Sector 30. These additional storeys are not only major violations, they are potential death traps. CHB chairperson Meenakshi Datta Ghosh points out that the foundations of many of these buildings are not strong enough to support the weight.Glassed-in balconies are routine in Sectors 45, 46 and 47. In some EWS houses, some residents have even covered the courtyards of their homes. In Sector 47, residents have built stairs to the top floor bypassing the middle floors. Violations lead to quarrels among the occupants; many have taken the battle to the courts.Conducting any sort of business from a residence is also a major violation and a common one. CHB houses in Sector 38, and Sectors 40 to 47, as well as CHB tenements in Bapu Dham, Maloya, Manimajra Modern Housing Complex, Palsora, Dhanas and Ram Darbar abound in little shops run from the dwelling units.
