MC sets up enforcement wing for demolition drives in Panipat

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, January 10

The Commissioner, Municipal Corporation (MC), Panipat, has established a special enforcement wing to launch a special drive for the demolition of illegal structures to curb the encroachment menace and sealing of properties to speed up the recovery process of property tax. The enforcement wing will work on alternate three days in a week.

Earlier, civic body faced a lot of problems

Earlier, there was no enforcement wing due to which the Municipal Corporation had to face a lot of problems in managing the team of various departments for launching demolition drives in the city. — RK Singh, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation

Recovery process at slow pace

• RK Singh, Commissioner, MC, said every defaulter mentioned on the list owes over Rs 1 lakh property tax. Now, the enforcement wing will launch a special drive to seal the properties of the defaulters
• The recovery process of property tax in the Municipal Corporation was going on at a very slow pace and nearly Rs 3.80 crore property tax has been collected so far against the proposed demand of Rs 45 crore in 2021-22.

Besides, a list of 48 defaulters has also been prepared by the Municipal Corporation who owe Rs 10 crore property tax .

RK Singh, Commissioner, MC, said earlier, there was no enforcement wing due to which the MC had to face a lot of problems in managing the team of various departments for launching demolitiondrives in the city.

Now, a special enforcement wing has been established in the MC . Three alternate days in a week i.e. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be fixed for launching demolition and sealing drive, the Commissioner said.

Besides, the MC Commissioner also wrote to the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police to appoint a Duty Magistrate and to provide police force, respectively for the day fixed by the MC to launch a special sealing and demolition drive.

Besides, a list of 48 defaulters has been prepared who owe Rs 10 crore property tax and have failed to deposit their dues even after several notices issued to them and every defaulter mentioned on the list owes over Rs 1 lakh property tax, he asserted.

Now, the enforcement wing will launch a special drive to seal the properties of the defaulters soon, he added.

Notably, the recovery process of property tax in the Municipal Corporation was going on at a very low pace and around Rs 3.80 crore of property tax has been collected so far against the proposed demand of Rs 45 crore this financial year 2021-22.

As many as 1.43 lakh (units) properties are registered in 307 colonies in the Municipal Corporation record of which 45,528 residential, 12,059 commercial, 3,739 industrial units, 1,244 institutional units, vacate plots 31,371, mix use plots 48,401 and 1,506 are special category units.

As per sources, the MC had passed the budget of Rs 161.5 crore for the present financial year 2021-22. The Municipal Corporation had set the target of recovering Rs 45 crore as property tax in the current financial year but it has received only around Rs 3.80 crore so far.

As per the sources, a total of Rs 245.49 crore property tax was pending for the past many years in the Municipal Corporation record and it gradually rises every year.