PGs: A thriving business option in Zirakpur

                In Zirakpur, a hub of affordable housing with several real estate housing projects, turning a house or a floor as a PG accommodation seems to be a lucrative business option here.



PGs here provide an economical, safe and easy option of residence to thousands of young professionals. However, a majority of these accommodations don’t follow norms. Those residing as paying guests, students, especially boys, don’t mind sharing the rooms with others to reduce their share of rent.



Scores of owners in the town have not registered their PG’s with any authority to avoid charges at commercial rates. In the absence of any check, most of the house owners charge as per their wish. According to sources, illegal PG accommodation business is flourishing in the city as over 50 per cent of the owners of such accommodation have failed to register themselves with the nearest police station.



Every other house seems to be rented out to students, fully or partially, in certain pockets of the town, including Baltana, Dhakoli and other areas in Dera Bassi.



As per norms, it is mandatory for PG house owners to get their houses registered at the concerned police station. Police verification of tenants is also necessary, but PG house owners are giving this norm a miss, too.



Employees at Sewa Kendra said about 50 per cent of the applications they received get rejected due to wrongly attached proofs. They alleged that suppose one is residing in Zirakpur for six months and then he shifts to other PGs they attached the old proof with them and its get difficult to trace them.



Though the city police hold drives against illegal PGs but after a few days, it again business as usual. Aashika Jain, holding additional charge of the Mohali DC, said, “We will be conducting inspection drives in the entire district to ensure guidelines and regulations are complied with.”



She added that orders have been passed under section 144 under which the owners are supposed to report to the nearest police station if they are keeping any paying guest.



Source: The Tribune