E-Paper
PMC to lease out 500 commercial shops to self-help groups
PMC will lease 500 of its commercial shops to shelf-help groups. Since 2008, these shops have been lying unused, said officials.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will lease 500 of its commercial shops to shelf-help groups. Since 2008, these shops have been lying unused, said officials.
The shops are located under flyovers and underpasses across different locations in Baner, Swargate, Shivajinagar and other suburbs of the city.
According to the officials of the PMC property department, the shops were meant to be leased for commercial gains for the civic body as part of the revenue-earning process. However, with the amendments to the 2008 leasing rules of the civic body, it had to release tenders seeking higher rentals for the shops and could not get prospective tenants failing the shops had remained under lock and key for over fifteen years.
Nitin Udas, deputy commissioner, social welfare department, said that since these properties had been locked and showing dismal signs of neglect, the civic body has decided to give these shops to PMC-selected self-help groups at very economical rates.
“The social welfare department will soon give a detailed proposal to the property department and following the approval, the shops will be leased out to the self-help groups for different charitable and noble causes,” he said.
The property tax department maintained that it was finding it difficult to carry out maintenance work inside all the 500 shops which cost the department over lakhs of rupees.
The self-help groups can showcase their products and will ensure the maintenance of the property over a long-term basis.
“It will bring in the desired basic revenue over the property and also give a market to the products of the self-help groups and will be a win-win situation for everyone. We are looking forward towards implementing this proposal at the earliest,” said Mahesh Patil, property department of PMC.
Amit Shringare, social activist, said, “The PMC’s decision to lease the shops to self-help groups is a welcome move and will ensure their upkeep and bring in the desired basic revenue.”
“There are a number of PMC properties including amenity spaces and commercial shops which need to be brought under the ambit of accountability to make them yield good income for the PMC,” he said.
“At the same time, these properties need to be assessed by an independent body. Unless the PMC administration is not held accountable, all the so-called social work-related announcements will end up with no concrete results,” he said.
