UT forms panel to revise lease money for Chandigarh Club

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 21

After Golf Club, the UT Administration has started the process to revise the lease money for Chandidgarh Club. Sources said the Administration had formed a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Finance Secretary Ajay Kumar Sinha to revise the lease deed of the club, which expired in 2010.

The other members of the committee are the Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner, Additional Secretary (Estate), Sandeep Sahni, president, and Mukesh Bassi, former president of the club. The issue has been pending for the past seven years.

While the club management pleaded that the Administration should keep the rates nominal as it was doing social service for years, the Administration proposed to increase the rates on the basis of the assessment done by the Engineering Department. Sources said the Engineering Department had proposed the rates, which were five times higher than the existing ones.

Naresh Chaudhray, vice-president of the club, welcomed the decision of including members of the club in the committee to decide the lease rates. He said this was the first time when the Administration did so. The lease amount was revised from Rs 8,000 to Rs 1.08 lakh per month in 2005 for five years. Chandigarh Club had paid arrears to the tune of Rs 1 crore in 2005. The club has around 8,000 members.