The BBMP is taking stern action against rent defaulters, including
some public sector undertakings at Public Utility Building (PUB) on M G
Road.
On Monday, the BBMP officials locked the branches of State
Bank of Mysore (SBM), Vijaya Bank, Apex Bank and post offices which are
located in the ground floor of the PUB for not paying rent for the past
three years.
According to a BBMP official, Vijaya Bank has to pay
BBMP a sum of Rs 3.25 crore, while SBM has to pay Rs 63.56 lakh, Apex
Bank `33.09 lakh and post office Rs 33.54 lakh. “In spite of issuing
notices, they have not paid the rent and therefore, we had to lock their
offices,” the official said.
Later in the day, Apex Bank paid Rs
33 lakh. The BBMP authorities were seen collecting the money in the
presence of police. Vijaya Bank also paid `2 crore later in the
afternoon and then BBMP authorities allowed them to open their branch.
At
the SBM branch, a bank staffer was seen redirecting customers to their
other branch on M G road. “Some employees in PUB branch were told to
work from M G road,” a bank employee said. There were also some
confusions among BBMP and SBM officials.
Meawhile, the SBM
authorities claimed that they had obtained a stay (to maintain status
quo) from the court on Friday itself. However,the BBMP officials said
they were informed about it only on Monday morning.
Speaking to reporters, BBMP Deputy Commissioner (Market) Nagaraj said they locked the offices on Monday morning.
“After
we locked (the offices), we got the court stay order copy. As we got it
after locking, we don’t know if we can reopen (the offices), we will
check with our Commissioner and the Legal Cell,” Nagaraj said.
