Chandigarh Housing Board cancels allotment of 20 more small flats

Continuing its action against rent defaulters, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has cancelled the allotment of more 20 small flats whose rent dues have piled up to ₹42 lakh.
Of the total 20 flats, seven are located in Ram Darbar, six in Sector 49, four in Sector 38 West and three in Industrial Area.
On October 16, CHB had cancelled the allotment of 20 similar flats in Sectors 49 and 56.
Along with cancellation of the allotment, CHB has asked the allottees concerned to hand over the possession of the flat within 30 days. If the allottees fail to return the possession, the process of eviction will be initiated.
According to officials, the allotment was cancelled as neither the allottees deposited the licence fee nor did they give any response despite repeated show-cause notices.
They said soon action will be taken against allottees of remaining small flats scheme who had not paid the outstanding licence fee/rent.
These flats were allotted under the Small Flats Scheme, for which the necessary licence fee has to be paid per month. But the fee of each of these allottees was pending at ₹1.5 lakh or more.
The total outstanding licence fees of these 20 flats amounts to more than ₹42 lakh. Out of these, the allottees living in six Sector-49 flats owe CHB around ₹1.89 lakh to ₹1.92 lakh each, while the outstanding licence fees of the rest was pending in the range of ₹2 lakh to ₹2.13 lakh.
The outstanding dues of the flats whose allotment was cancelled previously also stand at around ₹40 lakh.
In August 2013, the UT administration had decided that beneficiaries will be allotted small flats for a period of 20 years with a licence fee of ₹800 per month for the first five years. There will be a 20% increase for the subsequent five-year periods, bringing the fee to ₹960, ₹1,152 and ₹1,382 for each successive term.
Recently, an audit report had highlighted that CHB had failed to recover licence fees/rent worth ₹44.26 crore from 13,464 defaulters across different sectors as of March 31, 2023.