Amid shop-owners in many of its catchment markets declaring to go on agitation on January 11 against shop rent increased to Rs 15 per square feet from Rs 3.5 earlier, the Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA), in its board meeting on Monday, decided to go on sealing, auction and re-allotment drive post January 15 for the shops which failed to deposit the revised rent.
As the cash-starved Authority remains struggling with ways to find new avenues of cash flow, almost all of the proposals before the board on the day remained focused on cash generation. RRDA Chairman Parama Singh said after meeting which discussed six proposals, including rent increment row that there was no chance of roll-back of rent increment for around 710 shops in RRDA catchment areas in markets like Daily Market, New Market, Khadgarha and others.
“More than 200 shop-owners paid rentals on increased rates. They are safe and out of drive. We will be waiting till last date for depositing rentals on increased rates which is January 15. We decided to go on sealing, auction and re-allotment drive for those shops which fail to adhere to RRDA guidelines,” said Singh on Monday.Among other proposals, the Authority passed a proposal of floating tender for preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) to include some 170 villages of RRDA catchment area in Master Plan, which couldn’t be brought under it previously. “We have got 187 villages covered in Master Plan but 170 villages were out of it. We passed a proposal of bringing them under Master Plan net and develop them accordingly,” added Singh where RRDA Vice-Chairman Arvind Kumar was also present.The Authority also passed a proposal of charging Rs 200 per square meter for 99 years’ lease as infrastructure development charge for plot owners in its catchment area to provide road, water, electricity and waste management to them. “This rate of Rs 200 per square meter is less than what Rajasthan government is levying for similar service and facilities. Similarly, we passed a proposal of appointment of five personnel on temporary basis, including surveyor, assistant junior engineer and engineers,” said Singh.
Taking the move to increase revenue source, RRDA also passed a proposal of claiming five percent of the registry revenue which was taken earlier and was stopped a few years ago.