Panchkula: 87 files of telecom firms missing from MC office

Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta conducted an inspection at the MC’s Sector 14 office on Thursday where he found over 87 files missing pertaining to payment records of telecommunication companies for installation of mobile towers in Panchkula

Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta conducted an inspection at the municipal corporation’s Sector 14 office on Thursday where he found over 87 files missing pertaining to payment records of telecommunication companies for installation of mobile towers in Panchkula.

Haryana Vidhan Sabha speaker and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta conducted an inspection at the MC’s Sector 14 office on Thursday where he found over 87 files missing pertaining to payment records of telecommunication companies. (HT)

Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal and municipal commissioner Dharamveer Singh were also present at the inspection.

Gupta said that he has received complaints that several telecom companies were not paying prescribed fees for the past many years, causing huge loss to the state exchequer. He said that as many as 318 towers of Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, ATC, Indus and Jio are installed in Panchkula, but after 2016, prescribed fees and other charges were not paid by them

Gupta issued directions to disconnect the connections of companies which don’t clear their dues within a week. He added that MC is owed ₹100 crore on account of fees for installation of tower and laying lease lines and notices have been issued to the companies to clear their dues. Gupta said that of the 87 files which were found missing, 21 were of Reliance Jio, 16 of Indus Company, 13 of Airtel, 18 of Vodafone, three of BSNL and 16 of ATC.

“We are cross checking every file. The discrepancy could be because a few files were earlier handled by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran,” said the MC commissioner.

“The revenue realisation committee in its investigation has found that an official issued permission to a mobile company to install tower without paying processing fee and rent of about Rs. 1.65 crore,” he said.

The MLA said that the potholes on the roads are not filled properly by the mobile companies after the completion of work. “I have issued directions to take strict action against such companies. A detailed report in this regard will be sent to the senior officials of urban local bodies department as well as ULB minister Kamal Gupta so that appropriate action can be taken,” the MLA said.