After last month’s fire tragedy at an unregistered paying guest accommodation in Sector 32 here that claimed three young lives, the Chandigarh Administration is now mulling to put a cap on number of occupants that would be allowed to live in a paying guest accommodation in the city.
Another proposal has been mooted to fix number of rent deeds to be allowed in a house.
Recently, certain new provisions were added in the revised PG policy of Chandigarh which included mandatory fire clearance, annual renewal of license, indemnity certificate from PG owners. The Administration had also decided not to exempt the requirement of house owners staying in the PG accommodation.
As per the rules framed by UT Administration, a PG facility can operate only in a house with an area of at least 7.5 marla. It is mandatory to get it registered and thereon pay commercial rates for water and electricity.
Also, PGs are not allowed to run their own kitchen in the accommodation. “A proposal has been chalked out to put a cap on the number of occupants to be allowed to live in a PG facility here.
The number will be decided as per the area of the accommodation. At present, the minimum usable area for one paying guest is 50 sq. ft,” said a senior officer of Chandigarh administration.
He said that the clause of rent deed is often misused by the owners who do not register their houses as PG facilities. Considering this, we have also proposed to fix number of rent deeds to be allowed in a house, the officer added.