MCG: Dues of ₹3.41 crore yet to be collected since 2017

At least 8,938 penalties issued by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) since October 2017, amounting to around ₹3.41 crore, for various offences continue to remain unpaid and unaccounted for

At least 8,938 penalties issued by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) since October 2017, amounting to around ₹3.41 crore, for various offences continue to remain unpaid and unaccounted for, officials said. These account for more than 85% of all challans issued by the MCG in the past four years, they said.

The 8,938 pending penalties account for more than 85% of all challans issued by the MCG in the past four years. (HT Archive)

MCG officials have now directed their staff to launch a drive from next week to start recovering dues for violations, which range from the operation of illegal meat shops, burning garbage and erecting illegal advertisements to water wastage. Officials said that the water and sewerage connection of violators will be discontinued if they fail to pay the fines.

Four years ago, the MCG’s challan system came under scrutiny, as officials started receiving complaints that the civic body staff was collecting fines for violations of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) without issuing receipts or challans for the same.

To overcome the discrepancies, the MCG introduced a new policy wherein on-the-spot payments could no longer be taken by officials. Instead, the officials concerned were directed to note the mobile numbers and addresses of the violators, and the payment could only be made at MCG offices.

However, in at least 85% of the cases since then, the violators have either given incorrect addresses or mobile phone numbers or have simply not turned up at the MCG offices to make the payments, with officials also failing to follow up on the matter.

The matter came to light last week when deputy municipal commissioner Vijaypal Yadav held a review meeting regarding pending dues. “The non-collection of challans is a serious matter. People would stop taking the MCG seriously. From next week, the MCG will be launching a drive to recover dues from defaulters,” Yadav said.

Yadav said that he has directed officials to focus on violators who owe the civic body most or those with a high number of violations.

“The staff has been directed to compile a list of violators who each owe the MCG more than ₹5,000 in dues. We will first concentrate on people with heavy dues and then take action against the rest,” said Yadav.

Yadav said that the MCG is anticipating people with even smaller dues to pay the fines as word of disconnecting water and sewerage services spreads.

According to an official MCG document that has the breakdown of 19 types of challans and the corresponding pending dues, maximum unpaid violations are for pasting illegal advertisements, with payments for 1,848 violations yet to be made. Similarly, fines for 932 violations pertaining to polythene use and 863 violations of illegal meat shops are pending.

“With on-the-spot recoveries abolished, there was little incentive for MCG officials to recover the dues. Most fines issued were of ₹500. The civic body would have spent more trying to trace an individual defaulter and getting him or her to pay the amount, hence, there was rarely any follow-up on part of officials and more than 85% fines have remained unaccounted for,” said a senior MCG official who attended last week’s review meeting.