Royal Palace, a private marriage mandap near Ratnakar Bagh in Bhubaneswar. BMC officials will soon check licences of private kalyan mandaps. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 12: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a survey to identify private ‘kalyan mandaps’ (community centres) operating in city without licenses.

BMC councillors and ward officers have alleged that many house owners are using their premises as community centres and earning a lot of money during marriage season without any sanction from the authorities.

“According to BMC rules, they should be paying holding tax as per rental rate. The corporation has 15 licence fee collectors who carry out survey to identify community centres operating in the 60 wards,’’ said deputy municipal commissioner Priyadarshi Mohapatra.

“Since they are engaging in business, these illegal community centres also need to have trade license and if they are providing any catering service, then definitely need food licence from BMC. But as we have received information that that they are not following the prescribed licensing norms, the survey was necessary to list them and bring them into the holding tax net,’’ he added.

The BMC officials will check the licences of the individual community centres and also find out about sanitation facilities and how they are disposing solid waste.

“These centres generate huge solid waste during marriage seasons and the corporation is providing the basic services to them. Owners should come clean on their assessment and pay holding tax accordingly,’’ Mohapatra said.

According to BMC tax section records, 28 city hotels have facilities for ‘kalyan mandaps’ and another 42 community centres are also paying requisite fees as per rental rates for the use of their premises as community centres. “But now the BMC officials will try to list the rest of the community centres operating from residential premises, though there might be around 50 such centres operating in the city. But the exact number will be known once the survey is over,’’ said a senior employee of the tax section.

Mohapatra said: “After the survey on private ‘kalyan mandaps’, we will launch a survey on the residential premises being used as hostels. In fact, the house owners are earning double or even more amount by renting out their space to students or young office-goers on per bed basis, but their holding tax payment still remains the same. So we are also going to focus on this aspect in our future survey.’’