Unpaid rent costs BMC dear

January 9: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) education department owes over Rs 37 lakh to owners of private properties as unpai...

January 9: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) education department owes over Rs 37 lakh to owners of private properties as unpaid rent in respect of rented school premises. And with the country’s richest civic body already adopting severe austerity measures to counter a stiff deficit, the outstanding dues can only mount further.

According to an audit report prepared by municipal chief auditor, P C Pisolkar, Rs 37,36,757 were outstanding towards unpaid rent to landlords of private school premises. The dues shot up from Rs 25.89 lakh in 1991 to Rs 37.36 lakh in 1996, indicating an increase of Rs two lakh every year. In fact, unpaid rent has been a regular feature in the department’s accounts since 1980-81.But even these may not be accurate figures, as the deputy chief accountant and education department officials were "not in a position to give the list of names of landlords and even the period from when the rent is outstanding," Pisolkar said.

In fact, the accounts showed a few strange cases where rent cheques were sent, but were not accepted by landlords. However, no information regarding unpaid rent lying in the deposit account was given by the deputy chief accountant to the concerned ward’s education department.

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Pisolkar also rapped the education department for irregularities in respect of income from rent and other proceeds. During 1995-96 alone, the department showed non-recovery of rent to the tune of Rs 7.56 lakh in 95 cases and non-recovery of electricity charges amounting to Rs 2.14 lakh.

The department grants permissions to private parties to use municipal school premises on rental or leave and licence basis for conducting various educational activities like Balwadis, night school, but sanction and rent demand registers lacked key details. In some cases, no entries were made at all, resulting in complete lack of knowledge about revenue earned.

While no property registers were maintained for any school at the ward level, demand notices to defaulting parties were not issued for years together. "In most cases, vital documents like the leave and licence agreement, rent agreement, etc. were not executed and renewed from time to time," Pisolkar said.

Records of the rent demand register showed that the department had not charged any rent from the Municipal Co-operative Bank, which has occupied rooms on the first floor of the Gilder Tank Municipal Secondary School since 1968. "The bank still functions at the premises and as the education department has not maintained any sanction register and relevant papers, the exact amount of arrears could not be ascertained," Pisolkar said.

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The department also failed to collect rent from the government for the use of school premises for elections. Forty-eight class rooms of BMC schools in the city were given to the government during elections, but service charges to the tune of Rs 16,37,640 were not even demanded by the BMC. In some cases, even the possession of such rooms was not taken back after the elections.