KARACHI: The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has sent notices and imposed financial penalties on many of its residents for “violation” of its building control regulations by installing solar panels on their rooftops to generate electricity, a local English paper reported.
There is growing unease among DHA residents at the authority’s decision to send them notices and impose fines for allegedly violating its construction laws by installing elevated steel structures for solar panels on their rooftops, the report added.
The residents are also surprised that the DHA, which itself allowed them to install solar panels, is now threatening to penalise them.
Authority asks house owners to either remove ‘the violation’ or get it regularized.
“It is quite a strange and unexpected development because there are so many houses in DHA with solar panels on their rooftops. They were not questioned about this earlier, in fact encouraged. Now all of a sudden they are expected to cough up refurbishment charges that may amount to hundreds of thousands of rupees,” said a resident.
“It seems like a trap where first they let you walk into an entrance and then shut all exits for you because they wanted you caught. Every second house here has solar panels and it’s been like this for over five or six years. Now suddenly this is an issue for DHA,” he said.
“They want us to get their permission for installing solar panels. And to get permission, there are certain conditions such as getting our memberships reviewed or renewed, paying of refurbishment charges, getting approval from architects and engineers who must also happen to be on their panel. Now we also have to pay these engineers their fee, which is no less than Rs100,000 to Rs200,000,” the resident informed.
A DHA spokesperson said that the authority had mentioned in its 2020 bylaws, also uploaded on the website, that they support green energy. “All we ask for is that any new construction that includes provision for solar panels should have it in their design drawing and that the drawing be approved by a structural engineer,” the spokesman pointed out.
“And if there are solar panels going to be installed on an old house, it also needs to be checked to see if it can even carry the extra load. We don’t want your roof to cave in after all,” the spokesperson said.
“If there is a DHA surveyor that you need to call over, he will not charge you anything for the evaluation. And after the survey all that is required from you is an application. Even a handwritten one would do so that we may approve the installation of the panels in order for you to get your new house plans regularised,” the spokesperson explained.
“You should also look at things from DHA’s point of view. We can’t let everyone do as they please because then some steel structures for the panels will be too high, some will be as low as your boundary wall. There needs to be some sort of symmetry, too,” the spokesperson concluded.
It is worth mentioning here that the federal government is encouraging people to generate power through alternative energy sources to cut dependence on costly fuel.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had okayed a 10,000 MW solar energy project to reduce reliance on costly imported diesel, furnace oil and LNG for power generation. The PM had also removed the 17 per cent general sales tax on solar panel to encourage businesses and households to opt for solar energy.
