Tendulkar, Thackeray among BMC's water bill defaulters

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Shiv Sena party's patriarch Bal Thackeray, former Maharashtra chief minister A R Antulay’s family and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi are among the two lakh defaulters who have not paid their water bills to the civic body.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday released a list of two lakh defaulters from all 24 wards in Mumbai on its website, and interestingly the list includes names of celebs.

As per the list put up on the site the corporation has to recover over Rs 1,000 crore from these defaulters that includes commercial, domestic and industrial water users as of January 16, 2014.

The names of Sachin Tendulkar and his wife, Anjali, figure in the list of defaulters twice for amounts of Rs 16,640 and Rs 16,282 at their 19, Perry Cross Road address in Bandra.

The list also mentions the name of Bal Thackeray for unpaid dues of Rs 1,15,625.

Thackeray passed away in November 2012 after an illness at his Bandra bungalow, Matoshree.

Nargis Antulay, wife of former Maharashtra chief minister A R Antulay, also figures in the list for unpaid water dues of Rs 48,777. India Bull Real Estate, which owns the India Bulls Finance Centre at Dadar, is also listed among several construction and real estate companies with dues of Rs 8,72,052.

Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi’s is among the politicians who figures in the list for unpaid dues for hotel premises.

Trapped in a tight corner, embarrassed Shiv Sena senior party officials on Wednesday said the Thackeray family has decided to cross-check the pending bills and “...any amount found pending would be promptly paid off.” Azmi when questioned by local media, retorted: “As far as I know, there is no bill pending. I checked with my hotel manager and he said the BMC has not sent the pending bill if there is one...then of course we will pay it immediately if a bill is pending.”

The Tendulkars were not available for a comment.

In October 2011, Tendulkar had run into trouble with the BMC for moving into his new Perry Cross Road bungalow without obtaining the mandatory occupancy certification from the civic body.

The civic body had levied a penalty of Rs 4.35 lakh for illegal occupancy which the cricketer paid after a notice was served on him under the BMC Act.