EDC/CLU charges: Building branch levying rejected rates, say councillors

 An uproar broke out at the municipal corporation committee meeting held at the Zone D office on Friday after some councillors alleged that the building branch of the municipal corporation had been recovering external development charges (EDC) and change of land use (CLU) charges as per the 2017 rates, which were rejected by the House.

The issue was highlighted by committee members, including Jai Prakash, Mamta Ashu and Sunny Bhalla, who found out about the recoveries against different buildings as per the 2017 rates. The meeting on Friday was held to finalise the new rates.

Councillor Jai Prakash said the then general house of MC had rejected the resolution regarding the new rates as the rates were high especially for residential buildings. After that, the MC staff had to continue levying the rates finalised in 2014.

The rejected resolution was then sent to the state government, which directed the MC to form a committee to finalise the rates in December 2018. However, this information was concealed by the MC staff for allegedly benefitting builders and it is suspected that the MC was levying both the rates (whichever is less) for favouring the building owners.

The committee was formed around 4-5 days ago. “We will take up the matter in the general house meeting and demand an inquiry into the matter,” said Dr Jai Prakash while adding that he suspects that a major scam would surface.

Councillor Mamta Ashu said that it seems like the building branch officials wanted to favour some building owners through this act. A large number of commercial buildings have been established in the past and its needs to be inquired how many builders have been benefitted through this alleged illegal Act.

Despite several attempts, municipal town planner (MTP) Monica Anand was not available for comments. Anand was present during the meeting.