The Hindu 28.11.2014
Mettupalayam Municipality seals shop for illegal sublet
The Mettupalayam Municipality has recently sealed a shop
at the municipal bus stand after it found the shopkeeper to have
illegally sublet the premises.
The sealing and the
civic body’s proposal to auction all its shops in the town has angered
the Opposition councillors who staged a protest on Tuesday.
Mobile shop
Municipal
Chairman D. Sathish Kumar said that the shop that the officials sealed
belonged to a Sarvodaya organisation, which after taking it on action
had sublet the premises for setting up a mobile phone shop.
This was in violation of the rules and resulted in loss of revenue.
A
rough study the Commissioner K. Saravanakumar has suggested that owners
of almost all the 200 shops had illegally sublet the premises for rent
which was far higher than what they paid the Municipality.
If
the Municipality were to auction all the 200 shops, including the
prized 100 in the bus stand, it would get at Rs. 2.50 crore a year as
against the Rs. 75 lakh it earned at present.
Renovation
Mr.
Kumar said that the civic body had been forced to take such a step
because it needed to boost revenue to pay its share in various
development projects that the Central and State governments had
approved.
For instance, it needed money for the
following projects – bus stand renovation, new municipal office, workers
quarters project and water supply improvement.
To improve the income from shops, the Municipality would first auction the shop it had sealed to see what the highest bid was.
Based on the amount the shop generated, it would fix the rent for the other shops.
If
the shopkeepers were ready to pay the revised rent they could continue
using the shops else the civic body would auction the shops afresh
keeping the highest bid amount as a guideline.
Mr.
Kumar also said that the Opposition had no basis for opposing the
initiative that was aimed at boosting the civic body’s revenue.