Chandigarh civic body proposes major hike in community centre booking charges

The Municipal Corporation (MC) has proposed a big hike in the booking rates of community centres. To generate more revenue, the civic body is also planning to allow commercial activities like exhibitions in the community centres and restricting the bookings for resident welfare association (RWA) events. The RWAs will not be given community centres free of charge for their meetings and they will not be allowed to put advertisements of sponsors at the venue.

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No more freebies for RWAs

The committee formed to draft policy for management of community centres has also recommended to impose many restrictions on bookings by RWAs. Earlier, associations were allowed to book centres six months in advance, which has now been cut down to maximum 30 days.

One association will be allowed only one meeting in a month. No commercial event or advertisement will be permitted at the venue. No election will be allowed at community centres.

Only the hall on the ground floor will be provided for meeting, for which user charges of Rs 1,000 plus GST will be imposed. At present, the RWAs are given community centres free of cost.

An agenda for the draft policy for the management of community centres will be placed in the next General House meeting of the MC along with the recommendations of a committee of councillors formed for the purpose.

The panel has recommended to fix the rates as per the category of the community centres. It has been proposed to charge Rs 60,000 for category A community centres and Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000 for B and C categories, respectively.

There are 11 community centres in the A category. These are situated in Sectors 19, 23, 30, 33, 35, 37, 38, Sector 38 (West), 43, 49 and 50. Presently, the charges of these community centres vary from Rs 24,000 to Rs 48,315 per booking. Similarly, charges for B category centres ranged from Rs 13,198 to Rs 24,158. These centres are situated in 24 different sectors, including Manimajra. The C category community centres are mostly situated in colonies and villages and their booking charges vary from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000.

Justifying the increase, an MC official said the civic body had spent crores on the construction of community centres and huge amount was spent on its maintenance.

For the first time it has been proposed to allow commercial activities in the community centres like holding exhibitions. These will be allowed from May 1 to October 31 every year when there are less marriage functions. The MC expects to generate huge revenue from it.

The committee has also imposed many restrictions on the booking by RWAs. Earlier, associations were allowed to book community centres six months in advance. Now, it has been proposed that the booking will not be allowed more than 30 days before the date of event/function in the same ward. One association will be allowed only one meeting in a month. Only the hall on the ground floor will be provided for meeting, for which user charges of Rs 1,000 plus GST will be imposed. At present, the RWAs are given community centres free of cost.

In case a violation of the terms and conditions, misbehaviour or misconduct is reported, the association will be debarred from future bookings, charged double the normal rent and their security amount will be forfeited.

Besides, the committee has also deliberated on renaming the community centres as clubs. Meanwhile, no councillor has given consent for running the community centres on public-private partnership mode. However, the MC has proposed to run some of them on PPP modes.

The issue of free booking is likely to create an uproar in the next meeting of the General House after AAP councillors alleged misappropriation of booking amount. Yogesh Dhingra, an AAP councillor said the party would raise the issue and demand an inquiry into the matter. He alleged that the facility was often misused and there was no system to check the authenticity of the documents submitting for free booking.