The Hindu 16.11.2010
Only 65 p.c. BPS applications disposed of
The municipal corporation has received a total of 15,826 applications under the scheme
VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) could dispose of only 65 per cent of the applications received under the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) till Monday, when the scheme came to a close.
The Corporation received a total of 15,826 applications and a penal amount of about Rs. 45 crore under the scheme. The Corporation then estimated that it would net about Rs. 100 crore. The officials, in January 2008, printed 10,000 application forms. Surpassing their expectations, owners of buildings submitted applications in large numbers, and the total touched 15,826. The Corporation received Rs.1.06 crore on Monday, which was announced as the last day for submission of all necessary documents, taking the total amount received under the scheme to Rs. 45 crore.
The BPS has taken many turns as people knocked on the doors of the High Court, and the Government modified a few clauses in the scheme that was introduced in 2007. The BPS came into force in the city in 2008, and the State government fixed February 2008 as the deadline for submission of applications.
The hopes of the VMC to rake in good revenues through the scheme were shattered at a point of time as there was little response from the people. It hardly received Rs. 2 crore after the High Court pronounced its verdict on the case filed against the scheme a year ago. It was much less than the Rs.70-crore target that the VMC officials had set for themselves.
The BPS turned out to be an ordeal for the general public. The applicants raised a hue and cry over what they called “sordid state of affairs” in the Town Planning wing of the Corporation. The applicants expressed the view that the Corporation officials were looking at BPS as a “money spinner”. The people were angry as the officials at the time of submission of applications told them that the penal amount would be around Rs. 12,000, but in some cases it was jacked up to more than Rs. 88,000.
The Corporation already announced that any construction not regularised under the BPS before November 15 would be levied an excess property tax of 25 per cent.
