Banquet halls in Panipat running illegally, MC lax

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, May 7

All 45 banquet halls being run from the city are unauthorised. The local Municipal Corporation (MC) did not take any action against these illegal units after issuing notices year after year.

The engineering wing of the civic body had issued notices but no record of further proceedings on these notices was found available with the corporation. This was revealed in a report provided by the Executive Officer, MC, under the Right to Information (RTI )Act.

Notices to these banquet halls were issued many times by the MC—in 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016—but no action has been taken against them yet.

According to the information provided under the RTI Act, record of notices issued and the proceedings of 2008 and 2009 in the corporation were not available. Besides, notices to the 45 banquet halls were issued on December 4, 2015, but no records of further proceedings in this connection were available with the civic body. The Executive Engineer, MC, had again issued notices to these banquet halls on May 10 last year, but no further proceeding report was found in the records except for copies of the notices issued.

A banquet hall owner claimed that no banquet hall in the city was authorised as these were running in the HUDA area and could not be issued licences as per norms. An association of the owners of banquet hall had raised the issue of licence with the government functionaries but the terms and conditions for issuance of licence were too difficult for the owners to fulfill, he added.

Jugvinder Malik, an RTI activist, alleged that MC officials had been negligent on this issue. The issuance of notices by the corporation was nothing but eyewash. He alleged that the corporation had not taken any action against these unauthorised establishments.

Vinod Nehra, Executive Officer, MC, said the notices had been issued to the banquet halls by the engineering wing and the information in reply to an RTI application was provided on the basis of the records.

A survey of the banquet halls in the city would be conducted soon, he added.