7 months after closure, this Care Centre for the aged still owes BMC Rs 2 crore

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The Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Trust (DAMT) run NGO for senior citizens has landed into soup after failing to pay the due property tax and rent amounting to more than Rs 2 crore to the civic body.

The care centre was set-up in the BMC’s maternity home at Girgaum in 2004. Due to its failure in paying the required amount on time and found guilty for flouting norms, the centre was forced to shut down in August last year. Still, the dues are not paid off. While the BMC has now begun legal proceedings for the same, the NGO claims the matter is under dispute.

The civic body in 2004 signed an MoU with several private healthcare organisations under a Public Private Partnership model. One such collaboration was with the DAMT, part of the Harmony group (Anil Ambani group of companies).

After its inception in 2004, the DAMT soon asked the BMC for a waiver of rent. The BMC, as per its 2011 resolution, allowed DAMT to pay a nominal rent of Rs 1 per sq feet ‘subject to the Trust paying the rent of R1,07,340 till the date of sanction (of the waiver) and subsequently the rent of R1 p.a. along with property tax, electricity charges and water bills to be paid by the Trust, as mentioned in a city daily.

This means that the centre was asked to pay the rent until the time it was waived off in 2011. Besides, as per the BMC’s PPP policy, the NGO was supposed to pay property tax for the rented space. The total comes to Rs 2.40 crore.