Chandigarh, July 27 -- Repeatedly deferred in the past four meetings, the proposed three-fold hike in the booking charges of city's community centres will once again be tabled in the upcoming General House meeting of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on July 29. The proposal, aimed at generating much-needed revenue for the cash-strapped MC, was first tabled in the House meeting in March this year, and came up three more times in the subsequent months. But never reached a conclusion. Depending on the facilities offered, the community centres located across the city are classified into three categories. Category A centres, earlier available for Rs.24,000 to Rs.48,000, will cost Rs.60,000 - a 2.5-fold jump - if the proposal goes through. The booking charge for Category B centres, currently costing Rs.13,000 to Rs.24,000, is set to be increased to Rs.40,000, while the rate of Category C centres will go up from Rs.5,000-Rs.22,000 earlier to Rs.15,000- Rs.30,000 - a whopping three-fold rise in both categories. "The first draft with hiked rates was tabled in March. The initial draft had proposed booking charges for even weddings of economically weaker families and RWA meetings, but the move faced strong resistance from councillors. On councillors' demand, the proposal was discussed in the sub-committee and changes were made as per recommendations. Even then, the councillors are not deciding on the crucial policy, which is resulting in financial loss for the civic body," the MC officials said. In the last monthly House meeting on June 30, municipal commissioner Amit Kumar had clearly directed the city councillors to give their final decision on the matter, of either approving the hike or rejecting the proposal entirely, so that the decision can be conveyed to UT administration for final take on the matter. As per the proposal, weddings of women from families living below the poverty line, along with medical camps, blood donation camps, UT/MC events, and meetings of RWAs, senior citizens' bodies and pensioners' associations will continue to be exempted from the booking charge. But memorial prayer meetings, such as rasam pagdi and kriya bhog, which were also free earlier, will now entail 25% of the booking fee. In a bid to generate more revenue, MC will also table an agenda to hand over operations and maintenance of gyms in the community centres to private firms. The city has around 50 community centres, with gyms operational in about half of them. However, many of these gyms have remained shut for the past three to five years, leading to neglect and poor maintenance of equipment. Officials from the engineering wing estimate that the corporation spent around Rs.10 lakh on each smaller gyms and Rs.20-25 lakh on each larger ones. The civic body will soon invite eligible bidders for the operation and maintenance of Rose Club, Sector 16, under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The concession period will be 10 years, extendable by two additional years, with an initial six-month upgrade period. The selected concessionaire will be responsible for conducting structural repairs, aesthetic renovations, repair, etc., without changing the basic design of building, and providing services like a restaurant/cafe, gaming zones, library, gymnasium and event spaces, while maintaining the character and cultural integrity of the premises. Importantly, no permanent construction is allowed without approval, and only non-permanent installations (tents, gazebos) will be permitted. MC will also table an agenda for amending the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations to allow "show of hands" method of voting instead of the already existing secret ballot method in the annual mayoral elections. The decision to allow open voting was recently taken by UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, following the 2024 mayoral poll controversy involving vote tampering by presiding officer Anil Masih....