Chandigarh: Residential plots in Haryana’s Panchkula will no longer be allowed to have stilt plus four independent floors, Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said Wednesday after his meeting with CM Manohar Lal Khattar in this regard. Gupta said the revised rule will apply to all districts in the state once the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) makes necessary amendments to its rules to accommodate the change.
However, a government order formalising the decision is yet to be issued.
The Vidhan Sabha Speaker met Khattar Monday and apprised him of the problems residents of Panchkula — Gupta’s constituency — were facing due to apartmentalisation.
Confirming that no approvals will be granted for the construction of stilt plus four floors on a residential plot in Panchkula henceforth, Gupta told ThePrint over the phone Wednesday that all applications pending before the HSVP for construction beyond three floors have been turned down.
“Several residents from my home constituency had met me in the past couple of days demanding a ban on the construction of stilt plus four independent floors on residential plots in Panchkula,” he said.
Gupta said the residents who approached him alleged that apartmentalisation had blocked the flow of light and fresh air to their homes, besides congesting the lanes in Panchkula.
“Many residents alleged that their houses developed cracks because of construction by their neighbours. I brought this to the notice of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Monday. He has agreed to stop further permissions for such multiple-floor buildings,” said Gupta.
Asked whether the revision is only for Panchkula, Gupta said it will apply to all districts once the rules are formally amended.
An HSVP official in Panchkula told The Print that the urban planning agency, after getting an indication from the state government, had stopped clearing requests for stilt parking plus four floors on residential plots since Monday. But no written order has been issued so far, the official confirmed.
Another HSVP official posted in a different district opined that banning stilt plus four floors in just one district will be seen as discriminatory and may not stand legal scrutiny. He, too, clarified that the state government is yet to issue any written or verbal directions to the agency in this regard.
The Haryana government had in 2017 eased the norms in its building code to allow the construction of a stilt parking plus four floors on residential plots across the state.
The move faced stiff opposition from residents who said apartmentalisation put additional pressure on civic infrastructure and jeopardised the safety of buildings in the vicinity of plots with stilt plus four floors. But opposition to the move gained renewed momentum after the Supreme Court, in an order in January this year, banned the conversion of houses into multiple-floor buildings in the first 30 sectors of Chandigarh City.
Former Chief of Army Staff General V.P. Malik (Retd), who chose Sector 6 in Panchkula as his post-retirement abode, was among those who addressed the issue in a meeting of residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in Panchkula last month. “This haphazard development is an unhealthy and adverse step for Panchkula,” he was quoted as saying.
Not just Panchkula, residents of Gurugram too have voiced similar concerns over the apartmentalisation of their city which they feel has led to obstruction of light and air to their homes, while resulting in chaos on inner roads and additional pressure on supply of potable water and sewer lines.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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