Coimbatore Mettupalayam Municipality has begun sealing shops after the owners failed to pay rent.
According to sources, after the civic body sealed a shop on Thursday last, shop owners, who had defaulted rent payment, had come forward to clear their dues. Ninety shop owners owned around ₹ 6 crore.
The sources said after the civic body revised rent in 2016, a section of the shop owners started defaulting on rent, one after another. Despite repeated efforts and gentle reminders, they shop owners continued to default on rent.
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The pending rent rose so much so that the Municipality faced severe financial crunch and had to borrow money to even pay salary, the sources said.
In the next few days the civic body hoped to collect the entire pending amount and if not would seal all the shops, the sources added.