Ghaziabad district admin puts up list of top 10 defaulters at tehsil offices

In a name and shame drive, the Ghaziabad administration has put up the defaulters’ list at various tehsil offices

Under a drive started last week, the district administration has drawn up a list of top 10 defaulters in each tehsil and their pending amounts due to government departments. It has put up this list in various tehsil offices to shame the defaulters into making the payments.

The boards at the tehsil offices also list out the various heads under which payments are due.

In line with the drive, the administration on Saturday also sealed the offices of a private developer and a private company allegedly defaulting on stamp duty and labour payments respectively.

“The private developer has a pending amount of Rs75.31 lakh while the company had Rs5.24 lakh pending on account of non payment to labour. We have also got boards painted with the names of top 10 defaulters in every tehsil and have put them up at tehsil offices,” said Prem Ranjan Singh, joint magistrate.

In the first week of the drive, officials have realised around Rs1.29 crore from defaulters, including those who failed to pay stamp duty charges.

Last week, the administration had sealed three offices of defaulters at Raj Nagar

Extension. In case of further default after sealing, the officials can also put up defaulters’ properties for auction. Later, they can also be termed ‘bankrupt’ and FIRs lodged against them.

According to officials, further action will be taken against defaulters after recovery certificates (RC) are issued and defaulters still fail to pay up.

“The drive against defaulters is going well and sealing activity will be undertaken regularly. Major revenue is held up in cases of default and needs to be paid to the government,” Singh said.

On similar lines, the electricity department has also chalked out a strategy to realise pending payments from consumers.

The department, after serving notices and also giving sufficient time to pay the pending bills, has put up the list of top 10 defaulters outside their offices and substations of the areas concerned.