Thane Club can’t hike swimming pool fees without approval,

TMC concedes Mumbai, Aug 21 (PTI) In response to a PIL filed by agroup of around 100 swimming enthusiasts before the BombayHigh Court, challenging the "exorbitant" increase in the feeof a swimming pool built by the municipal corporation in theneighboring Thane city, the civic authority has admitted thatthe contractor which is running the pool had been asked tocharge the fee much lower than it is currently demanding. According to the petitioners Uma A Salaye and others,until 2014, the pool management charged an annual fee of Rs7,500 per person. However, Thane Club, the new management, in2015, sought to turn the entire premises into a private club,and demanded a fee of Rs 80,000 for the membership. According to an affidavit filed this week by thedeputy municipal commissioner Sanjay Herwade, the civic bodylast year had asked the Ganeshanand Developers, which isrunning the pool through sub-contractors, to explain theunauthorized increase in the membership. "Membershipfees….are required to be fixed with approval of thecorporation," the affidavit says. It further says that after the TMC soughtclarification, the contractor (Ganeshanand Developers) agreedto give membership for Rs 10,000 per year per person, and"even the said rate was higher than the bid rate (the ratequoted in the bid when tender for construction and managementof the swimming pool complex was floated) of Rs 18,000 perfamily per year." The corporation had not granted permission for anyincrease in the membership fees, but "temporarily" allowedthe contractor to charge Rs 10,000 per person annually tillthe final decision was taken. "Therefore the respondent number4 (the contractor) is not entitled to charge any amountexceeding Rs 10,000," the TMC’s affidavit says. Next hearing of the case would be in the first week ofSeptember, said advocate Shankar Thorat, petitioners’affidavit. The PIL points out that two other swimming pools ofthe Thane Municipal Corporation in the city charge only aboutRs 4,000 as annual subscription, while the Thane Club hasincreased the fee nearly eight times. The swimming pool earlier had about 1,500 members,many of them professional swimmers, as well as schoolchildrenwho participate in state-level and national-level competition. However, in November 2014, the management stopped therenewal of membership at the previous rates. The newly introduced exorbitant fee makes itpractically impossible for common people to use the pool,which is a property of the municipal corporation, the PILsays. Last year, the opposition Congress, NCP and MNScorporators had raised the issue in the corporation’s generalmeeting (Shiv Sena and BJP control the civic body) and triedto gherao the municipal commissioner, following the mediareports. Some swimmers had also carried out a ‘satyagraha’ byentering the premises and using the pool despite themanagement’s opposition. PTI KRK DKDK