Should you be scouting for a Paying Guest (PG) accommodation in Rajajinagar or Vasanthanagar or any area where PGs are known to be available in plenty, the chances are that you will not spot any, since there are no sign boards to indicate.
However, when you go through “proper channels”, you will be surprised to find that scores of PGs are indeed there in the locality. Most of them are flats or houses not registered with any authority, which makes monitoring difficult.
Even as the police are trying to find ways to regulate PG accommodations in the city in the light of the recent case of rape in a PG near Electronic city, there are huge gaps in the monitoring mechanism.
Interestingly, while the BBMP is making an effort to maintain records of PGs to earn revenue, the onus of safety and security of PGs, they say, lies with the police. The police, on the other hand, say that the challenge in regulating PG also stems from the fact that they are not under the purview of any department. As the blame game continues, working women in the city suffer, with no assurance of safe and affordable accommodation .
According to a BBMP estimate, there are about 8,000 PGs in the city. However, according to the BBMP’s revenue department so far only 630 PGs have registered with them and pay tax. In November last year, the council also passed an order that PG owners will have to obtain trade license and the accommodations will be seen as commercial buildings, which means they will have to pay property tax at commercial rates.
Many PG owners conceded that they had not registered with the civic body as they would have to pay all their charges at commercial rates. A PG owner in Vasanthnagar whose three storey house has been converted into a PG for 30 girls said, “We provide accommodation to the girls in our houses at a cheap rate. If I register as a PG, then my costs will go up and the cost per head will also increase and I will be unable to get clients ”.
Most students and working women too say that they prefer PGs over hostels as they are affordable. For instance, Ashna Shetty, a B.Com student who left her hostel a week ago, said: “My hostel even had a biometric system to check identity. We had guards and no visitors were allowed. In spite of that, I left the hostel as they did not have flexible timings and did not provide food.”
Police officials say that in order to solve the problem, a survey of the PG clusters would be undertaken after which they would lay down guidelines and regulations for PGs. This they feel would help in addressing the concerns around safety and security of women in PGs.
