Chandigarh MC frames new policy for small eateries

CHANDIGARH: Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, is coming up with a new policy to give permission for putting up temporary table and chairs in front of shops, booth, shop-cum-office, shop-cum-flat and bay shops operating as eating points across the city. The key motive behind this new policy is to specify a particular area to put chairs and tables, so that there is no inconvenience to the general public.

The agenda items in this regard is coming for detailed discussion and its subsequent approval before the members of the general house, scheduled on Monday. Since the policy has multiple aspects, everything has been covered in a detailed manner.

“Though, the policy was existing previously too, but there was no specific area identified to put chairs and tables, following which the shopkeepers were putting them up blatantly everywhere outside the shops, causing major hinderances to the public. Therefore, the new policy will mark specific areas for each shops and booths as per their size and availability. However, this time, the penalties is heavy in case of violations”, sources revealed.

While giving the permissions to such shops, the concerned Junior Engineer (JE) rank officer and enforcement inspector or sub-inspector will physically inspect the area and earmark the site for temporary putting up chair and table. The report will be submitted to senior authority and based on the that, the charges will be decided.

“There are a lot of grievances from the public at large that eating joints are placing tables and chairs in front of their booths, which leads to inconvenience. The earlier policy did not take into account the area to be utilized by the permission holder, and also had no clarity on the number of chairs and tables to be placed,” the agenda reads.