The Times of India               01.07.2013

LMC eyes rent from Uptron building tenants

LUCKNOW: In view of the cancellation of Uptron land lease, LMC is now mulling taking rent from tenants who have been let out offices in the premises by Uptron.

Municipal commissioner RK Singh said, "We have taken possession of the land after the lease cancellation. We are consulting our legal experts on this matter and shall be issuing notices to the tenants in July to submit their rents to the corporation."Uptron had sublet its building to six government offices in violation of the lease norms. These offices belong to the mid day meal programme, UPDESCO (Uttar Pradesh Development System Corporation), Shreeton India Ltd, E-suvidha Kendra and Software Technology Park of India.

LMC had given about 2,17,000 square feet of land in Gomtinagar to Uptron on lease in 1985 for a period of 30 years. Uptron was allowed to set up its office, workshop and quarters for its staff on the land. However the company flouted the norms by subletting the property to various government offices. The cash-strapped company was able to pay the annual rent to LMC only up till 1998. It took a loan from Industrial Financial Corporation of India (IFCI) against the leased property of LMC to maintain its finances.

When Uptron was unable to pay its debt; the bank took possession of the mortgaged property. IFCI later sold out the building to a private builder to recover its loan from Uptron without taking permission from the LMC. The corporation took cognizance of the matter only when Uptron sent a letter to LMC informing about the sale procedure of IFCI.

LMC claims that when IFCI issued a public notice in newspapers sale of the property, it concealed the fact that the property belongs to the corporation and was given to Uptron only on lease basis. LMC had then filed a writ petition in the high court against property sale of IFCI in March this year. The court had granted stay over the confirmation of sale.

LMC has also served the 90-day notice period to Uptron before cancelling the deed on Wednesday. Singh claimed that on one hand, Uptron has not been paying its rent for past many years and on the other hand, it mortgaged the property against loan without bringing it to the knowledge of the corporation. Similarly, even IFCI was hiding the truth from the private buyer that the land belongs to LMC.