Chandigarh, 30 January 2025: Key decisions on Chandigarh’s housing policies remain stalled as the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has postponed its board of directors meeting for the second time.
Originally scheduled for January 31 after a 20-month gap, the meeting will now take place on February 12. The last board meeting was held in May 2023.
With no board meetings for nearly two years, the issue of need-based changes remains unresolved, affecting around 60,000 property owners.
In December 2023, then-administrator Banwarilal Purohit assured that authorities were reconsidering the policy, but no concrete steps followed.
The CHB’s board was reconstituted in October last year by UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria for a three-year term. Official members include the CHB chief executive officer, UT finance secretary, UT estate officer, UT chief architect, and UT chief engineer.
Non-official members are BJP leader and former councillor Shakti Prakash Devshali, retired PCS officer Balbir Singh Dhol, and city-based architect Vinod Joshi.
Despite the board’s formation, meetings have been infrequent. In 2023, only two were held—one in February and another in May.
CHB Residents’ Federation president Nirmal Dutt said, “For a decade, the need-based changes policy has been a pressing issue, but no solution has emerged. Officers don’t seem to be taking it seriously. If this continues, we will protest.”
