4 days Ago
While there is no news of the resignations vowed by mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla and BJP councillors over the steep hike in property tax, deputy mayor and Congress councillor Taruna Mehta on Thursday tendered her resignation from the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation’s (MC) house tax committee. In a strongly worded statement, Mehta questioned the functioning of the committee, accusing the BJP-led civic body of bypassing due process. “There is no justification for any further meetings of this committee when the property tax has already been increased by three times,” she said.
“Why was this not discussed in the committee before the mayor brought the agenda to the MC House? By deliberately not presenting the proposal before the committee and then rejecting it during the House meeting, the BJP cleared the legal way for the administration to impose the tax arbitrarily,” she remarked. Mehta further alleged collusion between the mayor, BJP councillors and senior officials of the UT administration. “Now that the city is rising in protest, BJP councillors are shedding crocodile tears by offering to resign,” Mehta said, adding that the mayor and councillors’ “helpless” posturing before the administration showed how the officials had become “unbridled” under the BJP-led central government — something “unprecedented in history”.
‘UT itself owes crores in tax’ She also pointed out that the administration itself, responsible for the tax hike, was among the defaulters owing crores in unpaid property tax. “If they just pay their dues, it would significantly ease the fragile financial condition of MC,” Mehta said, vowing that the Congress would continue to oppose the “anti-people” decision. The house tax committee comprises councillors Ramneek Singh Bedi, Anup Gupta, Gurbax Rawat, Jasmanpreet Singh, Rajinder Kumar Sharma, Anju Katyal, Damanpreet Singh, Taruna Mehta and Amit Jindal.
Meanwhile, city BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, speaking on Thursday, said, “The BJP high command has taken note of the issue and is holding meetings to resolve it.” On Tuesday, Malhotra had declared that mayor Babla and all BJP councillors will resign if the UT administration fails to roll back the property tax hike and release pending funds for the cash-strapped corporation. However, by Wednesday, the party’s bold plan fizzled out.
Instead of resignations or visible protests, the BJP disappeared into closed-door meetings, where the core committee decided not to go ahead with the announced plan, but to introspect. No word on the promised resignations came even on Thursday..
