MUMBAI: The BMC, which is the country's richest civic body with a budget of around Rs 25,000 crore, took 19 days on average last year to resolve a complaint, revealed a study released by the NGO Praja on Tuesday. In 2015, civic officials needed a fortnight to redress grievances.

Despite the considerable resources at its disposal, the civic body seems to be cutting a sorry figure with the number of civic complaints rising by 32% from 2015 to 2016. The NGO's study found that out of the total 81,555 complaints received in 2016, action was not taken in 42% cases.

Another finding was that in L ward (Kurla, Sakinaka), which saw the highest number of civic complaints (7,498), action was taken in 53% cases and only 29% plaints were convincingly resolved. Meanwhile plans are afoot, to carve out a new ward out of the existing L ward in an attempt to provide better civic services.

Populous areas in the western suburbs were also at the receiving end of civic apathy. In 2016, K West (Andheri, Oshiwara, Versova) and K East (Jogeshwari) wards witnessed 6,374 and 5,901 complaints. While roads get a lion's share of civic funds, Mumbaikars are unhappy with the city's motorways. In 2016, as many as 13,475 complaints were received in connection with Mumbai's roads. Citizens have also a gripe with crumbling drainage networks and deteriorating management of solid waste and water supply. However, there has been a gradual decrease in the total number of complaints registered in connection with pockmarked roads; from 27% in 2014, the grievances fell to 20% in 2015 and 17% last year. Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee of NGO Praja Foundation, pointed that there is no effective tool for Mumbaikars to complain about the condition of roads that has led to a drop in the number of complaints.

HYDERABAD: Despite a windfall in property tax collections in the 2016-17 financial year, over two lakh tax payers have not paid property tax to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in the year in question.

According to official figures, piled up property tax arrears at the GHMC amount to Rs 1,228 crore including interest on tax arrears. Of this amount, the highest arrears of over Rs150 crore has to come from Khairtabad circle (10B) that covers upmarket areas such as Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills. The other areas from where arrears are due include Secunderabad, Abids and Old City (Charminar) areas.

The GHMC tax wing that gives red notices to the general public and warns people of seizing movable and auctioning immovable properties under the Revenue Recovery Act has not been able to collect tax arrears from about 10,000 top defaulters.

While admitting to the huge arrears, GHMC chief valuation officer Geetha Radhika said the actual arrears could be lesser as properties lying vacant and properties razed during road widening need to be removed from the list of defaulters."Public sector undertakings such as HAL have not been paying the amount due to financial problems," the chief valuation officer said.

During the 2016-17 financial year that ended on March 31, the municipal corporation had collected about Rs1,250 crore from about 12.85 lakh owners (assessments) against total assessments of 14.80 lakh in Greater Hyderabad. Nearly 20,000 tax payers who paid their taxes last year skipped this year due to various reasons such as no waiver of interest on the tax amount.

For instance, in Qutubullapur circle, while about 64,136 people had remitted their property tax during last year 2015-16, this has come down with 60, 159 properties making their payments.Similarly , in Kapra circle, in 2015 56, 786 paid their tax amount and it has come down to 51, 859 in the recently concluded fiscal. In one of the biggest circles, Secunderabad, against 1.10 tax payers in 2015-16, 1.07 lakh paid their taxes this year.