Pune civic health department on major collection campaign

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health department is on a major drive to collect outstanding licence fees worth over Rs3 lakh from defaulters in the city. The move follows an objection raised by the state government’s auditors about six months ago.

The licence fees are collected under the Bombay Provincial Municipal Act (BPMC), 1949, for running barber’s shop, egg stalls, sugarcane juice and other sundry businesses. The collection work is entrusted to the health department’s sanitary inspectors (SI). However, the government audit pointed out that the fees have not been collected since 1998.

The health department has started a major collection drive in the city with the help of newly appointed SIs on temporary basis. The SIs are given the defaulters list with their addresses and asked to intimate them, following which the defaulter is supposed to pay the fees at the PMC.

However, the sketchy  addresses are foxing the SIs. As per the health department sources, almost Rs1 lakh has been collected in terms of outstanding fees till June 7.