Raising a stink

A near-bankrupt civic body, the Greater Bangalore City Corporation, has found a novel way to squeeze out property tax from those reluctant to pay up. They have employed drummers to tom-tom the defaulters’ misdemeanours. The drummers will arrive at the defaulter’s front door and start a round of drumming after which someone will read out what he or she owes the civic body. What if one still doesn’t pay up? GBCC has the ultimate solution to that as a mall owner discovered the hard way — or rather, the stinky way. The civic body parked a couple of garbage trucks in front of the mall at peak hours. No surprise, the Rs 5 crore the builder owed the civic body was immediately forthcoming.