KMC starts single-tab system to enable hassle-free payment

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken a significant stride in improving the bill payment experience for the citizens of Kolkata.

Till date, there were three different tabs for citizens to view different kinds of assessment bills—F/S Bill (Fresh/upplementary Bill), LoI Bill (Outstanding Bills) and PD (Periodic Demands) Bill.

"There were situations when citizens only paid the present bills but did not cough up other bills since they were unable to view the other pending bills. So we have integrated all the different tabs in a single bill so that the citizens can pay only one time. People used to get confused with multiple bills and I personally faced similar situation just recently," Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.

The KMC has already started online payment gateway for paying assessment bills. With the new system in place from today (Saturday) itself, citizens can visit the KMC portal and select "All Bills" under online payment tab. Citizens will be able to view all their pending bills simply by keying the assessee number and can pay all the bills at one go.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation is also developing a mechanism for keeping track of all its legal issues, considering the fact that they are involved with the welfare of the citizens.

"There has been instances when lawyers have gone without any preparation and have been unable to give any satisfactory reply to the judge resulting in KMC's losing the case. I have asked KMC Commissioner and Baishwanor Chatterjee who is in charge of the Law department to develop an infrastructure so that the details of judges, lawyers including opposition advocates, status of the proceedings and scanned copy of any judgement etc are easily accessed," Hakim said.

He reiterated that KMC will not engage lawyers who would fail to have judgment in favour of KMC on multiple cases.

"In case of those cases that have been dragging on for a period of six months or over there should be an alert mechanism so that senior officials of KMC can intervene and try to resolve such matters quickly. Kolkata Municipal Corporation's legal matters are associated with the benefit of the citizens which should be our topmost priority," he added.