News: Regularising banquet halls on MCG’s agenda-16-03-2021
Regularising banquet halls on MCG’s agenda
The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is likely to take up the matter of regularising banquet halls in the city in its next House meeting, scheduled for Thursday. Of the 76 private banquet halls in the city, only one has been regularised by the civic body so far, according to the agenda for the meeting.
In January 2014, the Haryana government approved a policy allowing all municipal corporations across the state to regularise banquet halls. The policy was, however, valid for only 60 days and a solitary banquet hall in Sector 9 was regularised under this policy.
Despite seven years elapsing since the policy, as many as 75 banquet halls are yet to be registered under the MCG.
Hence, to both increase its revenue as well as regularise banquet halls to ensure they are adhering to fire safety norms, among other safety measures, the MCG wants the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) to once again reinstate its policy, albeit with a few changes.
“Regularising banquet halls is of great importance as such structures will be mandated to adhere to a list of guidelines and parameters, including fire safety norms. By standardising banquet halls, MCG can keep a vigil over its functioning and also increase its revenue simultaneously,” said Madhu Azad, mayor, MCG, who floated this agenda on behalf of councillors.
In November 2018, a banquet hall in Sector 9 caught fire. Despite the fire being of low intensity, due to narrow entry passage and blocked paths, the fire department took more than 25 minutes to reach inside the premises.
“There have been a few instances in the past where the fire department found fire safety violations in banquet halls or fire dousing equipment were found missing. Regularising them, hence, is important as the fire department can regularly check such structures and subsequently, issue or renew fire NOCs based on its findings,” said IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer (ADFSO).
Azad said that representatives of Haryana Party Lawns’ association had also raised the issue of regularising banquet halls in Gurugram with her two months ago and asked for changes to the existing policy, along the lines of the one adopted in Rajasthan.
“The matter of introducing the policy along with few changes was also raised by several councillors during the pre-budget meeting held last week, following which it was unanimously decided to introduce this agenda in the next House meeting. We agreed with most of the suggestions of the association members and will also ask ULB, once the agenda is approved in the House, to incorporate these changes in their existing policy,” said Azad.
According to Haryana Party Lawns’ Association president Anil Rao, the charge for regularisation under the Haryana government’s policy in 2014 was a hefty amount, a one-time payment, rather than one that could be renewed on an annual basis.
“The biggest problem with the Haryana government’s 2014 policy was that they were asking a one-time payment amounting to around ₹1.5-2.5 crore, depending on the size of the banquet hall, for regularising the structure. Almost all the banquet halls operate on a lease basis in Gurugram. For the original owners, this policy was an expensive and unnecessary expenditure,” said Rao, whose association represents 72 of the 76 banquet halls in Gurugram.
Rao said that representatives of the association raised the matter of regularising banquet under similar lines to the one adopted by the Rajasthan government, with members of the Haryana government in Chandigarh and Azad in Gurugram two months ago.
“Under the Rajasthan government’s policy, an annual licensing payment of around ₹2 lakh- ₹5 lakh is paid per banquet hall. We made members of the Haryana government, as well as the Gurugram mayor, realise that such monetary value of payment can be made by a banquet hall administration themselves and would also lead to an increase in the local civic body’s revenue,” said Rao.
In the MCG’s House meeting scheduled to take place at the John Hall in Civil Lines on Thursday, the MCG’s 2021-22 fiscal budget will be put forward before the House for approval, along with other agendas such as opening the policy of issuing licences to meat shop owners, MCG’s formal takeover of Maruti Vihar and Saraswati Vihar, constructing MCG’s office and allotment of land for constructing a new police station in Rajendra Park.
