Now, drones to keep tab on illegal structures in twin-city
In a multi-pronged strategy to keep a tab on illegal construction and to enrich its coffers by broadening the tax base, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), led by Dr Naresh Gite, will soon deploy drone cameras to detect illegal structures and to identify properties that have been under-assessed or have still not been evaluated.
This will be done under the government’s e-governance project, which has been mandated for all corporations. The administration has roped in M/s KPMG as its technical consultant to launch a comprehensive egovernance platform for the corporation.
While aerial surveys would be conducted to trace illegal constructions and non-assessed properties, different types of fully computersised modules would be developed for all civic wings under the e-initiative.
This is apart from digitization of manual records, Wi-Fi city, video-conferencing and a special software application, including a multi-purpose, user-friendly mobile app to facilitate tax payments and other related civic works. The project is being guided by urban development secretary Manisha Mhaiskar and the state’s I-T wing.
“The idea of digital inclusion is to weed out corruption, enhance transparency and inject pace into the MBMC’s functioning. Our tax generation can easily jump from the existing Rs192 crore to Rs300 crore,” Gite said.
As of now, the extremely outdated working system, being employed by the tax wing, has emerged as the biggest culprit behind lethargic revenue generation and deceleration of the pace of development in the twin-cities. Because serious irregularities, the MBMC is incurring multi-crore losses every year due to failure in timely tax evaluation of new properties and re-assessment of existing ones.
Moreover, the civic administration has earned notoriety for massive illegal constructions, which have been flourishing across the twin cities, owing to an unholy nexus between local politicians, ward officers and construction mafia.