CM okays allotment of house nos to illegal houses in Margao

CM okays allotment of house nos to illegal houses in Margao
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, DEC 2
Term it as “political move” or simply a move to generate revenue, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Thursday gave his stamp of approval to the request of City Fathers to allot house numbers to illegal houses in the commercial capital after obtaining an affidavit filed by the owner.
Kamat defended his decision, saying the move would enrich coffers of the civic body by nearly Rs one crore by way of house tax. Sadly, according to Kamat’s own estimates, the Margao civic body is faced with outstanding house tax arrears amounting to a whopping Rs 4-5 crore.
The Chief Minister told newsmen that the councillors discussed with him the issue of allotting house numbers to the houses which were assessed by the civic body for the purpose of levying house tax. “The assessment and survey reports are available. The municipal body can go ahead with the allotment of house numbers after obtaining an affidavit from the owners”, he added.
When newsmen drew his attention to the fact that the assessment work is suspect as it was carried out by private individuals in the presence of councillors and not by municipal engineers, Kamat said the affidavit will take care of any discrepancies in the claims made by the owners. Surprisingly, the Chief Minister further said that Municipal Engineers need not reassess the houses before allotting the numbers.
Civic officials in private say the assessment of illegal houses has not been done as per rules in force. Instances are galore when the illegal houses have been extended by the owners after the assessment work was completed by councillors with an eye on the migrant vote bank.
Incidentally, the Director of Municipal Administration had not given the go-ahead signal to the Margao civic body to allot the house numbers when the previous body had sought permission from the government.
However, the Urban Development Secretary felt there is no harm in allotting the numbers for the illegal houses, saying no legal status would be bestowed on the structures.
On this count, the Chief Minister said house tax levied on these structures would bring in handsome revenue to the civic body. “Rough estimates say the civic body can earn a tax revenue of Rs one crore”, Kamat said.
But, when asked why the civic body was going after this house tax, when house tax arrears are pegged at Rs 4-5 crore, Kamat said he would instruct the civic body to identity tax defaulters and recover the tax under the Land Revenue code.
He also disclosed plans to depute a Recovery Officer to the Margao civic body to recover the huge outstanding arrears.