The Pioneer 24.11.2010
Owners to pay for building-strength surveyParvaiz Sultan | New Delhi
The survey of properties by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to ascertain the structural strength of the buildings may turn out to be a burden on the common man.
The MCD has said that the amount spent on survey of buildings by the civic agency will be recovered from the property owners as property tax dues. Following the Lalita Park building collapse incident, MCD Commissioner KS Mehra had said after the inspection of properties situated on the Yamuna riverbed up to 300 metres away, the exercise will be carried out in all 12 zones of Delhi also.
A senior official of the Engineering Department of the MCD said the cost of the survey of 38 properties in Lalita Park area of Laxmi Nagar, to be jointly conducted by a team of Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and MCD engineers, will be borne by the civic agency. However, he clarified the civic agency will recover entire money spent on the exercise from the property owners. The official refused to divulge more details and payment arrangement with the CBRI.
“It will not be possible to bear all expenses as the civic body is already facing financial crisis. For 38 properties in Lalita Park area, the MCD will shell out but after that what will be the arrangement, we will have to decide. But we will charge the cost of the survey from individual property owner as property tax dues in the remaining part of the city,” he said.
On the other hand, several elected members of the body are apprehensive about the move. Their argument is while the MCD has been incapable of recovering existing or outstanding property tax from property owners, how it can be expected that it will recover the cost of survey?
Chairman of Standing Committee Yogender Chandolia said the civic has no option but has to collect those expenses from people. “It is correct, the MCD has failed to achieve the property tax target fixed in the Budget, but that is different thing altogether. How much we will charge and how we will recover it as dues will be decided later. At present, our priority is safety of people of Delhi,” said he.
Meanwhile, Leader of the House Subhash Arya said nearly 8,000 more properties situated in the riverbed had been surveyed. “We have set up 12 teams of 36 engineers for the survey. They have survey around 8, 000 properties until now,” said he.
