Angul: Sub-letting of shops has become a lucrative business here for some people, who have been allotted spaces by the Angul Municipality.
In this town, there are 728 shop spaces owned by the municipality. These were distributed to people who wanted to run a shop, via lottery. The rents varied between Rs 5 to Rs 7 per square foot and it remains. At an average, a shopkeeper usually pays Rs 400 to Rs 700 per month depending upon the size of the shop.
However it has come to the fore that a large number of the shops have been rented out to sub-tenants at exorbitant rates. The original tenants, every month collect the rent and with it they clear the dues of the Angul Municipality. The lion’s share they keep in their own pockets.
Because of this illegal practice, both the civic body and the sub-tenants are losing out. The civic body is losing out on revenue and the sub-tenants are paying rent higher than that fixed by the municipality.
There is the guideline that the original tenants of the shops cannot sub-let it out again without informing the civic body. But rules have been flouted with impunity in this regard. People have also been taken aback by the callousness showed by the Angul Municipality in this regard.
When contacted, the executive officer of Angul Municipality, Subhendu Jena said he was aware of the malpractice. “Since we do not have any official complaint we have not been able to take any action against these unscrupulous shop owners. All the shopkeepers are regularly depositing their rents and clearing the electricity bills. So there is no ground to move against them,” said Jena.
“However, the moment someone complains that an original tenant has let out his shop at an exorbitant rate to a sub-tenant, we will promptly remove him from the list,” Jena added.
PNN