Months on, Chandigarh residents yet to get community centre fee refund

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5

Several city residents have still not got the refund of the fee they had deposited for booking a community centre, which they had to cancel later in view of the Covid restrictions on the number of guests.

The bookings were made by people around May and June and they had to cancel these due to a cap on the number of guests imposed by the UT Administration in view of Covid-19. While some have got the refund after repeatedly following up their case, others are still waiting for it.

A Sector 50 resident, Sharad Gautam, who had booked a community centre in his sector for a day in May and applied for a refund of Rs15,000 in June, has not got his money back till now. “I have visited the MC office several times. They only say I will get the refund soon, but it has not come yet. Recently, when I visited their office to enquire about the refund, I was told my signatures were required on some document. I am awaiting the refund for about four months now,” lamented Gautam.

Another applicant rued, “They give no time frame to clear our dues. What kind of smart city is this? Their claims of digitising almost every service and doing work in a time-bound manner are seemingly not true. They are not going to pay us interest for the period of delay in refunding the booking fee. They only make people visit their office again and again.”

When Chandigarh Tribune contacted the officer concerned, he claimed that they had sent all refund-related applications to the accounts department. Accounts officials, on the other hand, claimed that they had cleared the payment. In fact, both departments failed to provide proper information regarding the total applicants and the refund amount.

People had booked community centres for marriages or holding other events in advance and were caught in a catch-22 situation when the UT Administration put a cap on the number of visitors in May. Many of them had to cancel the bookings and were to get a refund of 25 to 50 per cent of the booking charges.

Last year, when curbs were imposed on community centres in view of the first wave of Covid, the civic body had refunded the entire booking amount for April and May. About Rs80 lakh was returned to 493 applicants. In 2020 too, there was a delay and no fixed time was given to the public as to when they would get the refund.

MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “I will check the records and get the refund amount released. However, we have made changes in the process following which the refund shall be automatic and no separate application will be required to claim it. The changes will be implemented soon.”