Fed up of chasing down citizens who owe over Rs 265 crore in property tax, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation has taken the desperate measure, which is creating ripples
The eunuch squad will be deployed shortly after Diwali
If you owe money to the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC), be prepared for a clap in the face. Fed up of chasing down citizens who owe over Rs 265 crore in property tax, the civic body has now hired a group of eunuchs to make a song and dance about it – right outside the defaulters’ homes.
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As many as 93,000 people owe money to the UMC, and the civic body has repeatedly sent them notices and reminders to pay up. “We also need to pay several contractors and these amounts run into crores. Though we work for the people, they are not paying us taxes,” said municipal commissioner Rajendra Nimbalkar, who approved the plan to hire eunuchs to recover the debts.
Dancing queens
Officials believe that even the most reluctant defaulters will pay up in the fear that the eunuchs will create a scene outside their homes. “NCP corporator Rekha Thakur came to me with the innovative idea — she came with a group of eunuchs and asked me to hire them to recover the money. I agreed to the proposal. We will pay the eunuchs for this work,” said Nimbalkar.
“The UMC has to collect Rs 265 crore from defaulters. There are 1.75 lakh properties in the 13-km stretch under the Ulhasnagar corporation. If we count this year’s dues as well, the total amount will climb up to Rs 365 crore,” he added.
Since he was appointed to the top job in September, Nimbalkar has been cracking down on any sort of delay in official work. The IAS officer had earlier also installed CCTVs in all offices to ensure that the staff are punctual.
Diwali dhamaka
While it is yet to be decided how much the eunuchs will be paid for their services, the UMC has already hired seven of these special recovery agents, who will be sent out after Diwali. In the meanwhile, the UMC has deployed 90 officers to recover the pending taxes. If they fail, the eunuchs will get to work. “After Diwali the eunuchs will start visiting the house of defaulters,” said Yuvraj Bhadane, public relations officer of UMC.
This will not be the first time that a civic body has resorted to making a scene to retrieve dues from citizens – in the early 2000s, several corporations would hire bands to shame defaulters by playing music outside their residence. However, this is the first time that officials are turning to eunuchs for help.
Slow clap
Local activists like the idea so much, they are thinking of using it on the UMC itself. Raja Gemnani of the Ulhasnagar Foundation said, “This is a good idea to recover dues, but what about facilities for citizens? We lack basic facilities like proper roads, cleanliness and traffic jams. We can also hire eunuchs if we want and ask them to dance in front of UMC for not providing us these necessities.”
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