District Magistrate, Srinagar has constituted a committee for fixation of rent of rooms hired by students in city. The inter-departmental committee has been entrusted to finish the task within a period of 15 days. Meanwhile directions have been issued to concerned authorities to ensure that students do not face inconvenience on this account.
The committee constituted with Assistant Commissioner Revenue as convener is comprised of Superintending Engineer PWD, Superintending Engineer Hydraulic , Superintending Engineer Power, Chief Education Officer and Deputy Controller Legal Metrology. Deputy Commissioner as chairman of District Rent Assessment Committee has tasked the team to arrive at a uniform rate to be fixed based on different types of accommodations offered to students in Srinagar city.
The committee will workout per square feet rent in different locations and also take into account the standard expenses involved viz a viz power and water supply, or any other recurring tariff. Department of Legal Metrology has been asked to received the complaints in case of violation and initiate action wherever instances of overcharging are detected.
It is pertinent to mention here that a large number of students in various areas of city complained about overcharging of room rent and related issues. The district administration has accordingly initiated the process for a fair and transparent process to ensure standardisation of rent to be paid for hired properties.
Deputy Commissioner, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary directed the officers to obtain feedback from students as well as owners of such rented properties to the maximum extend possible for a fair assessment , working out tariff on account of services as well as rentals per unit area to arrive at standard rates which is indispensable to do away with the reported instances of arbitrary overcharging of rent reported in many cases.
Subsequent to the fixation of rates by the District aren’t Assessment Committee the district administration having appointed Legal Metrology as nodal department will receive complaints, related to violation, at the district call centre for redressal and necessary action.