In the draft Master Plan, prepared by the Delhi Development Authority, a strong case has been made for a liberal regime on “mixed use of land” — allowing commercial activity in residential areas — and broad parameters have been given.
Urban Development ministry sources said that while the Lutyen's Bungalow Zone, Civil Lines and government housing and heritage areas will be completely out-of-bounds for such commercial activities, the affluent colonies - categorized as the A and B-grade colonies under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) property tax system - will allow only allow the bare-minimum commercial activity.
This would mean that upscale localities like Defence Colony, Friends' Colony, Green Park, Hauz Khas, Gulmohar Park, Safdarjung Development Area, Maharani Bagh, Panchsheel and Greater Kailash can have only practising professionals (doctors, lawyers, CAs, architects) working from their homes. Apart from this, guest houses, nursing homes and pre-primary schools can exist along with retail shops, provided they are on a 18 metre-wide road.
Sources said that in the group housing societies as well, mainly located in Mayur Vihar, Patparganj, Rohini and Dwarka areas, only professionals will be allowed to practice and smaller shops will be permitted, provided they were part of the original lay-out plan. In the rest of Delhi, falling under the C, D, E, F and G colonies, retail shops will be given a free-run on the notified 2,000-plus roads.
According to sources, the retail commercial shops will also cover a wide range, like vegetable and fruit vendors, general stores, dairy products, stationary, PCO booths etc. Sources said this list could be expanded as well.
The UD ministry sources also say that owners of such commercial activities will have to be registered with the local civic body - on the lines of September 7 notification - and will have to pay a one-time registration charge ranging from Rs 250 to Rs 1,000.
Over and above, all these violators will have to pay annual "mixed-use" charges and these will be paid, just like the annual property taxes, every year before June 30 for the previous fiscal year.
While DDA has proposed stiff charges ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 2,300 per square metre (depending on the colony category and commercial activity) in the draft Plan, the UD ministry is expected to scale it down .
Sources said the ministry is likely to bring this down to almost half of what is proposed by the DDA, since it's under pressure from the Congress legislators who are demanding a reduction of 10-20 per cent of the proposed charges.
However, even if the violator does not register himself, as per the proposed master plan, he can still get away by paying up to 10 times the conversion charges as penalty.
The UD ministry sources said that even this clause can be relaxed by the government and a compromise of six times the conversion charges could be reached.
(Expressindia.com)Labels: DDA Dwarka