Following a drive launched by Sambalpur Municipality on December 5,
about `15 lakh has so far been collected as pending rent from
shopkeepers who had taken the shops on lease from the municipality.
In order to prevent their shops from being sealed, the defaulters are making efforts to pay the amount to the Municipality.
‘’Since
there was no response by the lesses after the Municipality issued
several notices to them demanding payment of arrear rent, we were forced
to launch a drive to seal their shops,’’ said Executive Officer of the
Municipality Aniruddha Padhan.
The result of the drive was encouraging and the shopkeepers are now willing to pay their rents, he said.
According
to reports, the Municipality owns about 688 shops in the town which it
had leased out on rent from past several years. But in absence of any
follow up to collect the rent by officials, a majority of the
shopkeepers avoided paying the monthly rent.
The shopkeepers owe
around `50 lakh to the Municipality though the actual rent per shop is
miniscule. There was no hike in the rent amount over the years which
should have been done, according to norms.
In the past few days,
the Municipality sealed about 45 shops at Golebazar, Kamlibazar,
Hospital road, VSS Marg, Sen Park area of the town and 10 shops at
Kunjelpada Chowk on Friday.
