The civic body has started serving notices on people who have converted their residential properties into commercial ones without following change of land use (CLU) procedure.
Officials have zeroed in on declared commercial roads, after which other areas will be covered. Defaulting property owners have to get CLU done in 15 days, failing which their properties will be sealed, officials said.
According to officials, there are over 10,000 properties where commercial activities have been started illegally without CLU from the civic body. As of now, over 150 notices have been served in areas like Dugri main road, Model Town road and Bindraban Road, among others.
On Tuesday, officials stared serving notices at Barewal Road. They are conducting on the spot surveys and serving notices. They ask property owners to furnish approved building plan. In case the person does not have any approval for the plan and has not taken CLU, a notice is served.
Assistant town planner, zone D Mohan Singh said, “Many people got approval for residential plan but gradually started commercial activities at the site. For example, some people have opened shops in the front part of their houses. We are asking them to get CLU for the shop portion. We will impose charges for commercial portion of the building.” He said as soon as they started serving notices to defaulters, people started approaching them for the payment process.
Illegal commercial activities cause traffic and parking problems on main roads. Commercial establishments are not planned accordingly and parking space is not designated near these places. So when people park vehicles here, there are traffic jams. Illegal commercial activities are also being conducted on main roads across the city but for now, the scanner is on zone D.
