Corpn suspends 6 bill collectors over property tax scam
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Madurai: Madurai corporation on Tuesday suspended six bill collectors for allegedly tampering with property tax records on the Urban Tree Information System (UTIS) portal. The order was issued by corporation commissioner Chitra Vijayan following an internal review and amid a police investigation into widespread tax manipulation.
The suspension of bill collectors P Karunakaran, M Kannan, K Ramalingam, P Ravichandran, P Aathimoolam, Ranjith Selvakumar, and Felix Rajamanickam comes a week after the resignation of all five zonal chairpersons over their alleged involvement in altering property tax data in the portal in exchange for favours, leading to significant revenue loss for the corporation. Notably, the same set of officials, except Karunakaran, was suspended earlier in Aug 2024 by the then commissioner, C Dinesh Kumar, when the scam was unearthed.
However, the suspensions were later revoked following protests by the bill collectors' association. Recently, five temporary employees deployed in the revenue section were also suspended, and the contract of the manpower agency to the revenue department of the corporation was cancelled.
The current probe, led by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Madurai city police, has intensified with the questioning of five zonal chairpersons who submitted their resignations last week on chief minister M K Stalin's directive. Police sources said that summons have been issued to at least seven more councillors and more bill collectors are under scrutiny. A senior corporation official confirmed that based on statements from the accused, one former assistant commissioner, who has since been transferred from Madurai, is also being questioned.
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