Reporter’s Diary: Corpn letting the fox guard the henhouse?

It is learnt that around 300 high-value defaulters owe the civic body around Rs 100 crore. While these notices – served by the field-level officials – help force a big chunk of property owners to pay up, the same is not the case with some influential ‘tax defaulters’. Most often, the field officials face the wrath of such defaulters. In one such incident, Revenue officials attached to Teynampet zone had issued a tax default notice to a reputed educational institution and pasted the notice on its premises. But, the management of the institution, rather than paying the Rs 96 lakh dues, reportedly resorted to threatening the woman official. The irony is that an official, who is supposed to keep an eye on any financial misappropriation by the Corporation staff, himself is said to have coerced the woman official to revoke the notice. Later, it came to be known that a child of this officer is a student of this college and was acting based on the ‘request’ of the college management. Taken aback by the threats, the woman official reported the incident to her senior, who asked her to do her duty without fear. But the question remains that how could an official act in favour of a defaulter and try to stop sincere officials from carrying out their duty?