The Tribune: Panipat: Monday, May
08, 2017.
All 45
banquet halls being run from the city are unauthorised. The local Municipal Corporation
(MC) did not take any action against these illegal units after issuing notices
year after year.
The
engineering wing of the civic body had issued notices but no record of further
proceedings on these notices was found available with the corporation. This was
revealed in a report provided by the Executive Officer, MC, under the Right to
Information (RTI )Act.
Notices to
these banquet halls were issued many times by the MC in 2008, 2009, 2015 and
2016 but no action has been taken against them yet.
According to
the information provided under the RTI Act, record of notices issued and the
proceedings of 2008 and 2009 in the corporation were not available. Besides,
notices to the 45 banquet halls were issued on December 4, 2015, but no records
of further proceedings in this connection were available with the civic body.
The Executive Engineer, MC, had again issued notices to these banquet halls on
May 10 last year, but no further proceeding report was found in the records
except for copies of the notices issued.
A banquet
hall owner claimed that no banquet hall in the city was authorised as these
were running in the HUDA area and could not be issued licences as per norms. An
association of the owners of banquet hall had raised the issue of licence with
the government functionaries but the terms and conditions for issuance of
licence were too difficult for the owners to fulfill, he added.
Jugvinder
Malik, an RTI activist, alleged that MC officials had been negligent on this
issue. The issuance of notices by the corporation was nothing but eyewash. He
alleged that the corporation had not taken any action against these
unauthorised establishments.
Vinod Nehra,
Executive Officer, MC, said the notices had been issued to the banquet halls by
the engineering wing and the information in reply to an RTI application was
provided on the basis of the records.
A survey of
the banquet halls in the city would be conducted soon, he added.
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