Posted on 03/17/2005 6:05:20 AM PST by Loud Mime
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Tax defaulters in southern India are being forced to face the music after city authorities hired drummers to play non-stop outside their homes until they pay up.
After many residents ignored repeated demands to settle overdue property taxes. authorities in a city in Andhra Pradesh state have sent 20 groups of drummers to play outside offenders' houses for the past week.
"They put up a spectacle outside the houses of defaulters, draw them out and explain their dues to them and the need to clear it at the earliest," said T.S.R. Anjaneyulu, municipal commissioner of Rajahmundry city.
"They don't stop until people agree to clear the dues."
The city, owed a total of 50 million rupees ($1.15 million), had been at its wits' end after sops like waiving interest and penalties had failed to recover the arrears.
The new method seems to be working, though. One week of incessant drumming has cleared 18 percent of the backlog.
We should outsource our entire government to India.
If those 4 guys show up in front of my house, the only music anybody is going to hear is "Taps".
Carl Palmer is great. I saw him with his short lived band THREE, years ago! Even though ELP is fantastic, I still enjoyed his work with ASIA the most.
The first concert I ever saw was ELP in Frankfurt, Germany. We were early, and one of the crew let us sit in early and we watched CP set up his drum set.....
I won't tell you what we gave the guy to let us in, but the music sounded SO good and later I got really hungry
Never underestimate the power of shame.
....add that to your neighbors complaining about the noise..
Pariah is Tamil for "drummer"
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