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House tax in urban areas to go: Hooda
Nishikant Dwivedi
Tribune News Service

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda starts the synchronisation process of the first unit of 300 MW of the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Plant in Yamunanagar on Thursday. — A Tribune photograph

Yamunanagar, November 1
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced waiving of house tax in urban areas and ‘chulha’ tax (hearth tax) in rural areas with effect from April next year provided the people deposited their outstanding arrears by March 31, 2008.

The Chief Minister announced this on the occasion of the Haryana Day while addressing a public meeting at Deen Bhandu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Plant here, after dedicating its first unit of 300 MW to the people.

The government observed the day as ‘Bijli utsav divas’.

The waiver of the house tax is seen as a major relief for the urban population. It would benefit a large number of house owners.

However, it is pertinent to mention here that the house tax is one of the major sources of income (about 25 per cent) of urban local bodies and now the urban bodies will have to find out another source of income.

Sources said the earning from tax on residential properties was about Rs 50 crore annually. The number of defaulters was very high and if the defaulters pay their dues (to avail the benefit), the government would earn a huge amount of money, said a senior government official. While addressing the gathering, Hooda talked about the welfare schemes announced and started by the government.

He took a dig at the previous state governments for not taking any step to improve the power situation in the state. He announced that his government has taken several initiatives and work on several power plants was underway. In the next few years, the state would be producing an additional 5,000 MW of power.

Haryana minister of power Randeep Singh Surjewala said the first unit of the thermal plant had been completed in a record time. He assured that all power plants, which were under various stages of construction, would also be completed in record time.

A point to be mentioned here is that very few people turned at the function, ‘much less’ than the ‘expected’ gathering. The number disappointed the organisers and Congress workers. A large part of the pandal remained empty.

Earlier, Hooda laid foundation stone of a hydel power generation unit of 6 MW at Dadupur. The unit is likely to start power generation by December 2008.

He also laid the foundation stone for augmentation of capacity of the Western Yamuna Canal from its present 13,500 cusecs to 20,000 cusecs. The work is likely to be completed by December 2008. Area in the 10 kilometer diameter of the thermal plant would get 24-hour power supply after the second commissioning of the second unit in February 2008, Hooda announced.

HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana, MP from Kurukshetra Naveen Jindal and MLAs from Yamunanagar, Jagadhri and Chhachhrouli Dr Krishna Pandit, Subhash Chaudhary and Arjun Singh, respectively, also spoke on the occasion.