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Chandigarh: Congress requests election department to slash street-corner meeting rates, MC denies
In a request to the election department, Congress leaders said political parties have to spend ₹16,000 to get permission for each street corner meeting in the city
With Lok Sabha elections picking up pace in Chandigarh, the local unit of Congress is bearing the brunt of expenses for the campaigns. Congress sent a request to the chief electoral office of Chandigarh to slash the permission rates for street-corner meetings in the city, which has been denied by the municipal corporation (MC).
In a request to the election department, Congress leaders said political parties have to spend ₹16,000 to get permission for each street corner meeting in the city. In addition to it, candidates have to spend extra on tents, chairs and other arrangements.
“While applying for permission we discovered that the fee to book such venues is colossal and extremely exorbitant, even to hold a meeting of about 50 odd people the fee being demanded is as high as ₹16,000. A nominal and reasonable rate should be fixed for the simple reason that other political parties, especially those who do not have adequate financial resources find it difficult to hold/conduct political meetings,” Congress added.
The request was submitted by Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky.
Following the request, the election department referred the case to the civic body, which in return, denied the request. “The existing rates have been approved by the finance and contract committee of the civic body on September 29, 2023. The request to slash the rates cannot be acceded due to the implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC),” MC officials replied to UT.
It is worth mentioning that each candidate, who will be fighting for the lone Lok Sabha seat from Chandigarh, polling for which is scheduled for June 1, can spend a maximum of ₹75 lakh on the election campaigning. The expenditure limit refers to the amount a candidate, after filing the nominations, is allowed to legally spend on election campaigning, including public meetings, rallies, advertisements, posters, banners and vehicles. All candidates are required to submit their expenditure statement to the ECI within 30 days of completion of an election.
