Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) is facing a challenge in collecting outstanding garbage collection bills from over 60,000 commercial and domestic consumers in the city. The bills to the tune of approximately Rs 10 crore remain outstanding.
Despite issuing notices and warnings to major defaulters – including administrative officers and employees of the corporation – a significant portion of the dues remain unpaid since even before the pandemic.
To expedite the recovery process, Shimla MC has announced a 10 per cent incentive for staff members, including supervisors and garbage collectors, who can successfully recover outstanding bills from consumers.
So, if a supervisor or garbage collector can recover Rs 1 lakh from consumers, they will receive Rs 10,000 as an incentive.
SMC Commissioner Ashish Kohli stated that MC has managed to recover a substantial portion of the outstanding dues from commercial and domestic consumers, but the pending bills worth approximately Rs 10 crore have been causing an additional burden on the corporation.
Therefore, the incentive scheme has been introduced to motivate staff members to recover pending bills, he informed.
A senior official of Shimla MC mentioned that the corporation has issued notices to 150 major defaulters who owe Rs 60,000 or more as outstanding garbage collection bills.
The Shimla MC is able to recover Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore every month, but the pending amount of Rs 10 crore needs to be recovered for the betterment of the corporation.
