The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has failed to collect rent amounting to ₹90.77 crore from the 116 markets it owns, claimed Padmanabha Reddy, Opposition Leader in BBMP council.
He told reporters on Tuesday that the Congress - Janata Dal (Secular) administration, while complaining about low revenue, had taken no steps to recover the pending rent from leasees of 5,910 shops in its markets. The annual rent came up to around ₹32.65 crore and the civic body had managed to collect just around ₹3.58 crore as rent this financial year.
“The BBMP has pending bills amounting to several crores; electrical contractors recently staged a protest and switched off the street lights demanding immediate payment of bills. The civil contractors are also threatening to stop work. Hundreds of pourakarmikas across the city are yet to be paid... yet, the BBMP is not capitalising on collecting the pending rent from the markets,” said Mr. Reddy.
Refuting the allegations, Ruling Party Leader M. Shivaraju said that the rental revenue was not as much as was being claimed. “There are many discrepancies in the figures. The Jayanagar market, for instance, is with the Bengaluru Development Authority. The Malleswaram and Sheshadripuram markets have been demolished. Many shops are vacant while cases pertaining to lease and rent are pending in the High Court,” he countered.
BBMP yet to pay its employees
The 7,000-odd employees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are yet to receive their salary for June 2018. Salaries, totalling around ₹32 crore, usually gets disbursed to the employees by the fifth of every month. With the salary payment being delayed, many employees have approached the councillors to pressure the administration into paying them.
Ruling Party Leader M. Shivaraju attributed the delay in salary payments to a technical glitch in the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) . He said that the salaries would be disbursed within three days.
