The Delhi High Court has asked the city government and municipal corporations to take a relook into charges fixed by them for using space at sites designated for making Ravana effigies by artisans.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar asked the Delhi government and the corporations to place a report before it after taking a relook into usage charges and listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.
Artisans’ issues
The direction was issued after the artisans told the court that at the present rate of ₹5 per square feet, they would end up paying ₹22,000 to ₹30,000 each month, and that they could not afford it.
They sought that the usage charges be reduced to ₹1 per square feet, which they could afford. They said if they apply for registration under the current policy, the authorities would assume it as acceptance of the higher usage charges.
The court was hearing a petition initiated on its own after it came across a news report stating that several Ravana effigies, built by artisans who came here from Rajasthan for Dussehra, were destroyed or confiscated by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation for allegedly encroaching on public land.
