The Hindu              28.01.2014 

GHMC to build walls around 385 open spaces

Special Corresponden

Civic body to spend Rs. 49 cr. to protect lands

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has identified 385 open spaces which will be enclosed with compound walls at a cost of around Rs.49 crore to save them from possible encroachments.

Speaking to presspersons on Monday, GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar said three senior officials were entrusted with the task of identifying the open plots belonging to the civic body and the team had come up with the list with related sketches and locations.

“We will be protecting them by constructing compound walls which are estimated to run for 70,000 metres on the whole,” he said. By June, all these spaces would be developed into parks and plantation taken up during the coming monsoon to ensure that they do not fall prey to encroachers. The new lung spaces would join the list of another 1,000 new parks proposed to be taken up in the coming months.

On property tax collection, the Commissioner said this year, so far Rs.538 crore had been collected as against Rs.467 crore during the same period last year. “Our first target is Rs.1, 000 crore and second target is Rs.1, 250 crore and we hope the collection to pick up after all these holidays in January,” he said.

On realising arrears and long pending dues, he said the staff was directed to act upon but without causing harassment of any kind. Road repair works will commence soon as the civic body has approved Rs. 50 lakh for each ward. A meeting was scheduled towards the month-end with the Roads & Buildings (R&B) Department on handing over its road stretches to the GHMC. Mr. Somesh Kumar also conceded the need for preparing staff and officers better in handling grievances and said a training module on the issue would be worked out soon.

The Times of India          27.01.2014 

Now, PCMC tax defaulters to face music

After Pune, it is now the turn of the property tax defaulters in Pimpri Chinchwad to face the music, literally. The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will start sending brass bands to play music in front of the defaulters’ houses from January 27 onwards till March 31.

The Pune Municipal Corporation tried the “music therapy” and recovered property tax arrears worth Rs 72 crore in four months - September to December - last year. The PMC has decided to continue with the services of the brass bands in the new financial year.

Bhanudas Gaikwad, assistant commissioner and chief of property tax department, PCMC, said, “We need to recover arrears worth Rs 250 crore. The department has hired 10 brass band teams to play music in front of properties whose owners have not cleared the arrears. The move is to embarrass them so that they pay the property tax at the earliest.”

Gaikwad said the department had sent bills to property owners within the municipal limits last year. People who failed to pay their dues by December 31 are being considered as defaulters. There are 3.8 lakh properties registered with the department out of which owners of 2.25 lakh properties have paid their bills. Arrears amounting to Rs 250.97 crore are outstanding till date.

“The department has divided the municipal limits into 15 divisions. Two contractors have been assigned to provide five bands each. One of them has been told to play music in eight divisions, while the other contractor will cover the remaining seven divisions. Each team will have three musicians. The total expenditure on hiring the bands is Rs 8.5 lakh,” Gaikwad said.

The contractors have been told to play music in five zones - Thergaon, Bhosari, Sangvi, Chikhli and Chinchwad - on all days as they have the largest number of properties.

Gaikwad said the contractors will be given a list of properties at the allotted zonal offices at 10 am every day. Two to three employees of the department from every division will accompany the musicians of each team. He said that the department has hired around 10 vehicles for the band teams.

However, the idea of playing music in front of defaulters’ properties has not gone down well with civic activists in Pimpri Chinchwad. Manav Kamble of Nagari Hakka Suraksha Samiti has written a letter to the municipal commissioner stating that it is unconstitutional on part of the civic body to shame people in such a way and force them to pay property tax arrears. He demanded that the civic body must not make use of brass bands for the purpose.

However, Gaikwad said, “The Pune Municipal Corporation is using the brass bands for the same purpose and has recovered a large amount of arrears from defaulters. We are also doing the same. There is nothing unconstitutional about it.