To curb the ever rising tent mafia when it comes to booking open spaces, community halls and parks of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for organising religious, socio-religious, spiritual activities and marriages, an online booking facility was launched by DDA.
Tentwallahs are known to book the grounds in advance and put up pandals on them. This forces genuine customers to approach the tentwallahs to book the same venue at a higher price.
DDA officials said, the online booking has been initiated on public demand and to streamline the booking procedure with transparency.
DDA has 154 venues that can be booked at the click of a mouse: the application for online booking is available on DDA’s web site.
A DDA official said, ‘It is expected that the facility will provide the public convenience of getting the sites available booked online without having to visit any DDA office. One can book a site 30 days in advance on first-cum-first-serve basis at a nominal charge with the required security deposit’.
While many residents think the move will make the booking process more transparent, they say the proposal to hike security rates for bookings from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh would only burden the end users, but will have no effect on tentwallahs. Customers now have to submit the required documents and shell out a fee up to Rs 50,000 for booking a DDA venue.
‘There have been several complaints that genuine customers are forced to pay astronomical amounts for booking DDA grounds. A committee was constituted to find a solution to the problem.
Replacing the manual system with an on line facility is part of the committee’s recommendations’, said an official.
Meanwhile, in case of staff of DDA including retired employees, the concessional rate can availed only for immediate family which will include self, spouse, unmarried children, unmarried brothers
and sisters.
Tentwallahs are known to book the grounds in advance and put up pandals on them. This forces genuine customers to approach the tentwallahs to book the same venue at a higher price.
DDA officials said, the online booking has been initiated on public demand and to streamline the booking procedure with transparency.
DDA has 154 venues that can be booked at the click of a mouse: the application for online booking is available on DDA’s web site.
A DDA official said, ‘It is expected that the facility will provide the public convenience of getting the sites available booked online without having to visit any DDA office. One can book a site 30 days in advance on first-cum-first-serve basis at a nominal charge with the required security deposit’.
While many residents think the move will make the booking process more transparent, they say the proposal to hike security rates for bookings from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh would only burden the end users, but will have no effect on tentwallahs. Customers now have to submit the required documents and shell out a fee up to Rs 50,000 for booking a DDA venue.
‘There have been several complaints that genuine customers are forced to pay astronomical amounts for booking DDA grounds. A committee was constituted to find a solution to the problem.
Replacing the manual system with an on line facility is part of the committee’s recommendations’, said an official.
Meanwhile, in case of staff of DDA including retired employees, the concessional rate can availed only for immediate family which will include self, spouse, unmarried children, unmarried brothers
and sisters.