Kalka residents want house tax reduced

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 8

Resentment prevails among residents of the Kalka Assembly constituency as they are being charged house tax on a par with Panchkula “without being provided with basic facilities”.

Residents say the state government has failed to give proper facilities to the Kalka-Pinjore area, which comes under the purview of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation. “They have been looting people by charging heavy house tax,” say residents.

The Finance Department of the Haryana had kept Kalka and Pinjore in Z category and has been paying 10 per cent house rent allowance to its employees, while employees residing in Panchkula have been getting 20 per cent.

Residents say most of the colonies in the constituencies were illegal as only six colonies were regularised by the corporation and even these lack facilities such as proper roads.

A resident said as per the Section 413 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act 1993, the government cannot charge house tax without giving basic facilities. He said due to the anti-people policies of the BJP state government, no relief in house tax was being given to residents.

Senior Congress leader Vijay Bansal said during the past five years, he had been taking up the matter with the Haryana CM, but in vain. He said when he had submitted a memorandum to the CM on January 8, 2016, the MC had prepared a report which stated that if the government wanted, it could reduce the tax.

Bansal said Kalka and Pinjore, as well as the rural areas of the belt, fall in the Shivalik region. He said the Shivalik Development Board was formed in 1993 to promote development of the region. However, the Haryana Government has not yet been able to provide these areas with basic facilities, he added