Darjeeling News | Sublet hill civic shops sealed

Darjeeling, Jan. 31: The Darjeeling municipality today cracked down on business establishments which had been “illegally” sublet by the original tenants at a higher rate.

The zamindari department today sealed six business establishments, including two ATM counters of private banks, which had come up on the premises of a municipal building against the rules.

“Subletting municipality properties is illegal. We have started conducting a survey of all municipal buildings. We have started sealing such illegal establishments,” said Seshmani Gurung, the commissioner in charge of the zamindari department.

The municipality has more than 30 buildings, including two supermarkets. Twenty-six buildings are named in the alphabetical order from “A” to “Z”.

“Today’s drive was conducted only on Municipality Building A and the crackdown will continue,” said Gurung.

The civic officials say while the original shop owners pay anything between Rs 220 and Rs 240 per month to the municipality as rent, they are subletting the shops to a second party for amounts ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000.

The drive also laid bare alleged violation of rules by the previous civic boards. It came to light during the crackdown that the earlier civic board had given permission to shop owner G.L. Pradhan to sublet her premises to a private bank to run an ATM counter.

Pradhan said: “I had obtained a no-objection certificate from the municipality and of the Rs 10,000 I receive as rent from the bank for the ATM, I pay Rs 2,000 to the municipality as directed by it.”

The ATM was among the establishments sealed by the authorities today.

The NOC issued to Pradhan on December 17, 2007, states that though subletting civic property is illegal, the board considered her “plea and after going through serious thought” asked her to pay Rs 2,000 per month for the sub-leased portion.

“Although she has shown us the letter, I could not find the record of such a permission when I checked all files in the zamindari department,” said Gurung.

The municipality is now planning to cancel the ownership of the shops that had sublet a portion of the civic property. “We will convene a board meeting and decide whether to cancel the lease or to levy a hefty fine on those who violated the municipal rules,” said Gurung.