ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: There are not many outdoor places for families to visit for entertainment. The few there are, the civic authority is making sure to turn people away from them. In one such move the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has come-up with another strategy to empty the pockets of the common man looking for entertainment.

It has placed Rs20 ticket per person who visits the Shakarparian hill called the National Monument. Rs20 is besides the Rs10 that visitors pay as a parking ticket.

It is pertinent to mention that National Monument was an idea of former President Pervez Musharraf and was constructed with a cost of Rs580 million, in 2007. No fee was charged by the authority up till January 2012, except for parking.

“There was no ticket fee at the National Monument,” observed the source.

However, it’s not clear whether the CDA is charging this fee or the authority has auctioned the Monument’s security point, now converted into a ticket booth.

A source in CDA said that the ticket fee was imposed on the orders of the chairman CDA Farkhand Iqbal, since he has assigned his finance wing to ensure maximum funds generations from small ventures like the National Monument.

“The chairman in his recent interaction with CDA board members directed them to ensure better financial generation from entertainment projects and the first one was the National Monument,” said the source.

The source said that chairman was briefed by the officials that funds generation at such a small level like charging fee from visitors will not make any change on depleting finical reserves of the authority.

A visit to the National Monument showed that every visitor was charged Rs20 by contract workers.

“The authority is also charging few extra rupees for parking of vehicles in the parking area,” said Adeel Arif, a visitor from Lahore.

The visitor maintained: “My cousin has to pay Rs10 for motorcycle parking, besides an entry fee of Rs40 for both of us visiting National Monument. It is quite an expensive trip,” observed Arif.

Another citizen Mumtaz Hussain claimed: “It’s a pity on part of CDA, since I am accompanied by my four children and paid Rs120 for the four kids and my wife.”

He maintained that at Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, the district government in Karachi is charging Rs5 as just a fee to limit an unwanted rush at the site. However, CDA is minting money without any reason.

When Dawn approached one of the persons posted outside the gate of the National Monument, who was collecting fee from visitors, he said: “I have been asked by the CDA to collect the fee and the amount is going in authority’s kitty.”

When approached, a senior administration official of the authority to comment on the recent imposition of fee at the National Monument, insisted: “We have initiated the move to impose the fee on visitors for controlling the number of people visiting the monument.”

The official said that the authority will review the matter but for the time being there is no remedy that concerns the general public.

Despite multiple attempts, the spokesman for the authority and the chairman of CDA, Farkhand Iqbal were not available to clarify CDA’s position on the matter.