Now pay three times more for booking Chandigarh community centres

Chandigarh MC panel has also asked people to hire generator sets to power their functions.

Those planning to book community centres this wedding season will have to shell out more as the municipal corporation panel has recommended up to threefold increase in the rates.

File photo of the Sector 39 community centre. Now, for booking a community centre in A category (air-conditioned with capacity of more than 400), people will have to pay Rs 30,000 instead of Rs 10,000. (HT File)

The community centre panel, constituted by city mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal, has also introduced refundable security deposit while booking the facility and made it mandatory for people to arrange generator sets to supply power to their functions on their own.

The panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Arun Sood has also divided the 40 community centres located in various parts of the city into four categories depending on their capacity. The decision taken during the panel’s meeting on Thursday will get final nod of the House during its meeting on October 30.

Now, for booking a community centre in A category (air-conditioned with capacity of more than 400), people will have to pay Rs 30,000 instead of Rs 10,000. The non-AC centres, which can be booked for Rs 6,000, will be available forRs10,000 toRs20,000 according to the capacity (see table). No booking is required for D-category centres with the capacity of less than 50. The panel has also decided to charge a quarterly fee of Rs 500 for gym services from membersRs1,500 from non- members.

Arun Sood, however, justified the hike, stating that if people can pay lakhs for functions in marriage places in Zirakpur and other nearby places, they can also pay Rs 30,000.

“As far as generator sets are concerned, the power load of community centres is very low and cannot sustain the AC load,” he said. “So we have decided that people should hire their own generator sets.”