Files pile up as SCB staff man checkposts

HYDERABAD: The clearance of files at the Secunderabad Cantonment Board has almost come to a standstill. With half of the staff being  deputed at checkposts to collect octroi (a tax on various goods brought into an area) and toll tax for the last two weeks, works like issuing certificates and verification of documents is piling up. The Cantonment staff started collecting octroi and toll tax at 12 checkposts across the Cantonment limits from July 23 onwards, after tax collection by private contractors was cancelled. SCB’s 28 junior and senior assistants out of the existing 48 were sent to checkposts for the work along with 450 class four employees, said M J Joseph Celestine, tax superintendent of SCB.They work in shifts and collect the taxes as per rates prescribed by the board. A four-wheeler passing through the cantonment area has to pay `6 and SCB’s one-day toll collection is about `30,000, a prime income source, he added.This is the second time that the SCB’s staff from crucial wings like engineering, health & sanitation and tax department are being deputed at checkposts for collection of taxes. As a result, citizen services like issue of birth and death certificates, collecting property tax and sanitation works were left pending, said PV Sabitha, head accountant of SCB. She added that citizen services were partially stopped at the SCB for the last two weeks due to staff shortage.“The staff at the office have been working for 10 hours these days to clear the piled-up files but the work just keeps on adding. The staff were initially told by the CEO that the extra work would only be there for a week until new recruitment or new contractors are employed. But the CEO has been extending the dates,” she said.Moreover, as officers of one wing have been deputed for the tax collection works, the officers of the other wing have to take up their colleagues’ works. As they are not familiar with it, it is taking more timeand causing more trouble, she added. S Balakrishna, chief executive officer of SCB said that they released a notification in June to appoint 26 more junior assistants. “The process of recruitment would be completed by September end but until then, SCB cannot do anything. Measures have been taken so that major services are not hit at the Cantonment office,” the CEO added. Meanwhile, a fresh tender notification would be issued for awarding octroi and toll tax contracts by the end of August.