Recovery of Rs. 87.15 lakh pending under property tax in Ferozepur

Ferozepur, May 19, 2014: Marred with lack of funds and shortage of staff, the helpless Municipal Council of Ferozepur city is facing gigantic troubles. Not even the council is unable to pay the salaries of the staff; the pending liabilities are worth more than Rs.13 crore.
The shortage of administrative staff and safai karamchari, has hit the system of MC. The sanitation system in the city has been collapsed. For 25 wards of the city, there are only 80 safai karamcharis to perform the duty.
Not only the salaries of the employees are affected, the municipal council has been failed to deposit provident fund of about Rs 240 Lakh, for the last fifty months due to shortage of cash. Besides, more than Rs.3 crore are pending for electricity charges.
Dharampal Singh, Executive Officer, Municipal Council, Ferozepur accepted that the council is facing shortage of funds. The council has very limited sources of income and it receives a meager grant from the government. All the other expanses have to bear by the Municipal Council.
There are around 13741 water supply connections in the city, out which 8655 connections are exempted. Similarly out of 13817 sewerage connections, 8712 connections are exempted.
The council had recovered an about Rs.50 lakh as property tax out of which Rs.27.85 lakh is pending due to legal reasons. Though a recovery of Rs. 87.15 lakh is still pending under property tax, people are reluctant to pay the tax as the clouds of uncertainty are hovering over it.
The council is also paying Rs.3-4 lakh per month to a Chandigarh based garbage lifting company, which has a contract for lifting the garbage from the city.