Chandigarh MC goes soft on car bazaar dealers
Sandeep Rana
Chandigarh, October 29
While the Municipal Corporation should be cracking the whip on dealers of the Sunday second-hand car bazaar in Mani Majra for selling vehicles the entire week instead of Sundays only, it has proposed to waive the fee for July 9 on account of heavy rain that day.
“A representation has been received from the President of Car Dealer Association whereby it has been requested that due to the heavy rain on July 9 this year, the association could not organise Sunday Car Bazaar in Mani Majra. They were unaware of the heavy rain and as usually, paid fee to the corporation in advance. It has further been requested that their fee may be adjusted for the coming Sunday,” said the MC proposal.
“It is further submitted that there was heavy rain on July 8, 9 and10 and the northern region had suffered a huge loss. Therefore, the request of the association can be considered symmetrically,” the MC proposal added.
The agenda will be placed before the Finance and Contract Committee on Monday.
While the dealers are allotted spaces for Sundays on a payment based on the number of sites they opt for, they continue to sell vehicles from these sites all days of the week.
It was found that only some of them operated from shops. There are only about four booths from where the trade of second-hand cars is being run and the number of vehicles runs into hundreds.
Visitors to the market and other shopkeepers complained of parking issues due to the car bazar.
Over 200 cars are parked for sale daily not only in the parking lot but also in the open area at the back of the booths and on footpaths. The association claimed they had rented shops and cabins and those were their cars.
Meanwhile, MC officials claim they have been running enforcement drives on a regular basis to stop violations and also imposing penalties on violators.
No check
While the dealers are allotted spaces for Sundays on a payment based on the number of sites they opt for, they continue to sell vehicles from these sites all days of the week. There are only about four booths from where the trade of second-hand cars is being run and the number of vehicles runs into hundreds.
