The New Indian Express 04.01.2014
Mayor Bats for Selling BBMP Properties Now
Even as pressure from the Chief Minister forced BBMP to go back on its plan to pledge the Town Hall as collateral for a bank loan, Mayor B S Sathyanarayana has come up with a new suggestion: selling some properties of the Corporation to pay off debts.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, the Mayor attempted to distance his administration from the proposal to pledge Town Hall to avail a loan from Canara Bank. He claimed that the proposal had neither come from the standing committee nor the Council. “We do not have any intention of pledging any heritage building, which has historic value,” he said.
When asked whether the Palike had planned to pledge Johnson Market or Russell Market instead of the Town Hall, the Mayor said he was not aware of any such proposal and added that these also would not be pledged.
Arguing for the need to consider selling BBMP properties that had been given on lease, the Mayor said the lease periods had expired in case of many properties. “I have asked officials to give a list of such properties. Also, many properties are given on long-term contracts and the BBMP gets no revenue from them. The Palike can sell it to the lessee as per the market price. We can also go in for auction. However, this is my personal opinion. We need to take the opinion of the Council and State government,” he said.
Special Govt Grants
The Mayor said BBMP has around `3,600 crore outstanding loans including `1,600 crore in payments to contractors. “The State government should give special grants to BBMP so that it can stand on its own feet. The Palike needs funds to clear old loans and take up development works,” he said. He called on the government to release at least `1,000 crore per year.
Referring to the internal audit recommendations which had called for the recovery of more than `300 crore from officials involved in irregularities, the Mayor said a special meeting will be held next week to discuss the issue. “It is not a small amount. We shall recover it from the officials by attaching their salaries. Even if they were transferred to different agency, we can still attach their salaries. However, we need to hold discussions on what to do about officials who were dead and retired,” he said.
Pledging Not Solution: Opposition
Bangalore: The leader of the opposition in the BBMP Council Manjunath Reddy said pledging buildings was not the solution to come out of debt. “BBMP has the capacity to generate revenue. It needs to tackle tax defaulters. With Akrama-Sakrama, Palike’s revenues will definitely get a boost,” he said. He alleged that while pledging of KR Market and Public Utility Building had come to the notice of the Council, remaining cases, including pledging Rajajinagar, Johnson and Malleswaram markets, had not. “The administration has taken approval directly from the government,” he said. The Public Utility Building was pledged thrice last year, he added.
