Panel to examine policy on free bookings of community centres

The proposal to end free booking facilities of community centres for certain associations and for charitable purposes will be examined by a committee of five councillors. Harpreet Kaur Babla, Mayor, Chandigarh, has decided to constitute a special committee comprising five councillors, which will examine proposals in detail before the agenda is again placed in the general house of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh.

The committee will submit the recommendations after consulting all stakeholders.

Sources said that the department concerned of the MC had prepared a draft policy for the management of the community centres situated all over the city. As per the draft, it has been proposed to end free booking facilities given to certain associations to generate more revenue for the civic body. As the financial conditions of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh have been worsening with each passing day, the civic body has now proposed to end free bookings of the community centres.

As per the prevailing policy, the civic body is not charging anything from certain types of associations like residents welfare associations, senior citizen association and pensioners association. The MC is also not charging anything for organising blood donation camps or health camps.

As per the proposal, the MC will charge 20 per cent of the total fee of the booking of community centres from RWAs and other associations. The agenda of the policy was also brought before the house last time, but was deferred.

An officer of the MC said that the free bookings were causing a huge loss to the civic body. He said that many bookings of community centres were being done free of cost. Due to this, the corporation was incurring a loss of over Rs 3 crore annually. He said that the revenue would increase if no free bookings are allowed in future.

He also said that the facility was often misused and there was no system to check the authenticity of the documents submitted for free booking. The MC had spent crores of amount on the construction of these centres and huge amount was also being spent on its maintenance.

However, Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman of the Federation of Sector Welfare Associations, strongly opposed the proposals. He said that the community centres were meant for the benefit of the community. If the MC won’t give them free of cost, then their names should be changed.

Chandigarh