With an aim to deal with owners of under-construction residential and commercial complexes who fail to clear tonnes of malba or construction waste, leading to inconvenience to residents of the area, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is all set to deal with them strictly by increasing the rates of malba fee manifold.

HUDA officials added that while the malba fee is being increased now, almost 90 per cent of it would be refunded, unlike the 50 per cent refund being done presently, if the entire malba is cleared after the construction is over.

“As the malba fee being charged by HUDA at present was Rs 5,000, with a 50 per cent refund if the malba was cleared, people were not taking things seriously. It was in 1998 that the malba fee was fixed at Rs 5,000 by HUDA.

A number of complaints were being received, where tonnes of malba was leading to inconvenience to residents. Besides, in places like Gurgaon, there have been a number of cases where millions of cubic tonnes of malba is being produced during the construction of shopping malls and big commercial complexes and is not being cleared,” said Chief Administrator, HUDA, T C Gupta.

He added that the violators preferred not to take the refund on the malba fee rather than getting the malba cleared. While so far the malba fee is the same for residential and commercial buildings, a proposal to increase the amount for commercial and residential buildings has been made.

“HUDA’s aim is not to earn from the fee amount, but to stop such violations,” added Gupta.