Amritsar, August 31
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation’s ‘name and shame’ drive against tax defaulters seems to be working.

Faced with an embarrassing prospect of civic body men beating drums (dhols) in front of their houses, a majority of residents voluntarily coughed up their pending dues on the very first day of the drive on August 29. The result: MC coffers got richer by a whopping Rs 9.1 lakh.

“Our message to defaulters is loud and clear: Pay up or face public ridicule,” said a civic body official.

Amritsar could well be a trendsetter for other municipal bodies which are grappling with the problem of tax recovery and pending bills.

“The idea seems to be working. We were fed up with residents not paying their House tax, water and sewerage bills. So, this innovative plan was floated. Special ‘dholis’ (drum beaters) have been engaged for announcing the name of defaulters. Besides, notices would also be pasted in their localities,” said another official.

Civic body sources said of the pending Rs 22 crore house tax, just Rs 3 crore has been recovered so far. In many cases, defaulters had issued cheques to evade legal action. These cheques, however, later bounced.

Taking a strong note of an Akali worker allegedly abusing and threatening MC Superintendent Shakti Bhatia, who went with his team to collect dues from a gas agency, Amritsar Municipal Commissioner DPS Kharbanda has decided to lodge a complaint.

“In the first phase, we have prepared a list of nearly 110 defaulting properties, the owners of which would face music, literally. We expect to recover Rs 35 lakh with this initiative.

If the defaulters still fail to clear dues, their water and sewerage supply would be snapped. Lastly, we would have to attach their properties under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act,” said Kharbanda.

Ludhiana MC is, too, planning to go ahead with the ‘drum’ drive. Ludhiana Municipal Commissioner Vijay Bublani said they have set a target of Rs 10 crore to be collected as House tax. “We have managed to recover around Rs 3 crore. Till now, we have been serving notices to the defaulters but after August 31, we too would follow the ‘drum beat’ formula,” he said.

With many defaulters in Jalandhar and Bhatinda, civic body officials have a tough task ahead of them. Assistant Commissioner, Bhatinda MC, Kamal Kant said the civic body is yet to realise an amount of Rs 1.5 crore as House tax. “Similarly, it has to recover Rs 10 crore as pending water and sewerage bills,” said Kant.

Ashok Kumar Gupta, Director, Local Government, said it was the moral duty of every citizen to pay for civic amenities being enjoyed by them.

“We conduct monthly reviews on tax recovery and question the civic authorities if they fail to recover dues,” he said.