Gurugram civic body to take action against illegal commercial units

GURUGRAM: The MCG commissioner has directed the joint commissioners to send notices to owners of commercial properties operating without a trade licence in the city. According to property tax records, there are 66,000 commercial units in the city. But a majority of them don’t have a trade licence, officials said.

“The commercial units in the city operating without a trade licence should be issued a notice. These units should first obtain a trade licence as per the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act,” MCG chief Mukesh Kumar Ahuja said at a meeting that he chaired on Tuesday.

In the 2020-21 financial year, the MCG had estimated to generate a revenue of around Rs 15 crore from trade licence fees. However, the civic body could generate only 55% of the projected revenue out of trade licence fees. In the current fiscal, the MCG has projected to generate Rs 12 crore from trade licence fees.

“It was also discussed at the meeting that since a majority of commercial properties in the city are running without a trade licence, if they apply for the same, it would help the civic body generate some revenue,” said an MCG official, who attended the meeting.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included enforcement matters like illegal encroachment and unauthorised constructions, sanitation, marriage registrations and flood preparedness ahead of monsoon. The commissioner also gave directions to the joint commissioners to identify land in each zone to set up material recovery facilities (MRF). He said that the secondary points or stations for garbage collection and disposal should be gradually done away with and these should be replaced with MRF.