GMC serves notice to 66 Guwahati hospitals for 'illegal constructions'

GUWAHATI: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has served notices to 66 private hospitals/nursing homes, which include a few top-rated private hospitals in the city asking them to submit "occupancy certificates" within seven days. The notices have been issued to the hospitals to assess the constructions, if there is any without permission of the civic body and thereby evading tax.
GMC commissioner Devasish Sharma said 30 out of 66 hospitals have replied to the notices; but most of them are "not satisfactory".
An occupancy certificate certifies that the construction of the building has complied with the approved plans. It is issued by local municipal authorities or the building proposal department once the building has been completed and is ready to be occupied. Simply put, without an OC, your building has not been awarded a "pass certificate".
The commissioner said, "We have sought the occupancy certificates to assess if there is any construction without GMC's permission. If any hospital is found constructing without the GMC's permission, then a penalty will be imposed. The assessment will help generate good revenue. There are several buildings or constructions in the city, which are possibly evading GMC tax by carrying out constructions without permission."
‘Civic body to soon start geo tracking of constructions’
The GMC will also serve similar notices to other buildings, including private schools. It may be mentioned that the GMC commissioner, during an interview with TOI last month, said rapid construction is the root cause behind the city’s perennial artificial floods.
“People have constructed huge buildings encroaching into wetlands or river banks. Officials should be careful while granting permission in order to control rapid construction,” the GMC commissioner had said.
The commissioner said the civic body will soon start geo tracking of the construction in the city.
“GMC is doing manual inspection or survey of the construction. It is not feasible to manually assess the constructions in a city with around 13 lakh population. The GMC is now developing a system for geo tracking of the constructions. It will help the civic body assess the constructions and accordingly help in taking action or initiatives,” he said.