UT gives final opportunity to residents of Colony No. 4

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh administration has given final opportunity to slum dwellers of Colony No 4 before vacating the land from them.
As the administration had given deadline till July 21, the UT estate office will now hold five camps on July 11-13, 15 and 16, and will give a hearing to the affected residents. These camps will be organized in the office of SDM (East) and after that no opportunity will be given to the residents to present their grievances.
The land is currently occupied by the slum dwellers, who will be rehabilitated at Maloya under the slumdwellers rehabilitation scheme.
According to the plan, the UT estate office and Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) will ensure allotment of flats to eligible slum dwellers. Around 2,350 residents have already been allotted flats in Maloya colony that has more than 5,000 houses.
The allottees will have to pay Rs 1,000 as licence fee every month for 20 years after which they will pay the balance to get ownership of the flat.
Construction of flats in Maloya had begun in June 2014 at a cost of Rs 250 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to hand over flat keys to the allottees in May last year, but the project could not be completed. The project was originally meant to be completed by 2016. But, it got delayed by more than two years.
Chandigarh Housing Board is the nodal body for construction of rehabilitation colonies. So far, it has built 12,736 of the total 25,728 flats proposed for slum-dwellers. Of these, around 12,000 were built in Sector 38 (W), Sector 49, Dhanas, Mauli Jagran-II and Ram Darbar.
The administration rehabilitates slum dwellers after conducting a biometric survey. The colonies resettled in the last 10 years include Colony No 5, Nehru Colony, Kuldeep Colony and Mazdoor Colony.