The BBMP is taking stern action against rent defaulters, including some public sector undertakings at Public Utility Building (PUB) on M G Road.
On Monday, the BBMP officials locked the branches of State Bank of Mysore (SBM), Vijaya Bank, Apex Bank and post offices which are located in the ground floor of the PUB for not paying rent for the past three years.
According to a BBMP official, Vijaya Bank has to pay BBMP a sum of Rs 3.25 crore, while SBM has to pay Rs 63.56 lakh, Apex Bank `33.09 lakh and post office Rs 33.54 lakh. “In spite of issuing notices, they have not paid the rent and therefore, we had to lock their offices,” the official said.
Later in the day, Apex Bank paid Rs 33 lakh. The BBMP authorities were seen collecting the money in the presence of police. Vijaya Bank also paid `2 crore later in the afternoon and then BBMP authorities allowed them to open their branch.
At the SBM branch, a bank staffer was seen redirecting customers to their other branch on M G road. “Some employees in PUB branch were told to work from M G road,” a bank employee said. There were also some confusions among BBMP and SBM officials.
Meawhile, the SBM authorities claimed that they had obtained a stay (to maintain status quo) from the court on Friday itself. However,the BBMP officials said they were informed about it only on Monday morning.
Speaking to reporters, BBMP Deputy Commissioner (Market) Nagaraj said they locked the offices on Monday morning.
“After we locked (the offices), we got the court stay order copy. As we got it after locking, we don’t know if we can reopen (the offices), we will check with our Commissioner and the Legal Cell,” Nagaraj said.