Congress protests property tax hike in Chandigarh

The Congress staged a protest against the threefold hike in property tax at the Housing Board light point in Mani Majra here today.

The protest was led by Chandigarh Congress district president Surjit Singh Dhillon. City Congress president HS Lucky and all party councillors joined the protest.

Carrying placards, protesters shouted slogans like “Triple tax will not be tolerated”, “BJP means more taxes”, and “Withdraw the increased collector rates”.

BJP councillors must resign: AAP

City AAP president Vijay Singh and treasurer JD Ghai have demanded that BJP councillors should resign from their posts as promised by them earlier, citing their complete failure on all fronts. They alleged that the MC imposed a steep hike in house tax, significantly increased water and sewerage charges, and failed to disburse pensions for the past four months to nearly 25,000 senior citizens, widows, and differently-abled persons. They alleged that BJP councillors lacked moral responsibility and basic sensitivity.

Lucky said the UT Administration was bent on exploiting the public. After making housing unaffordable by increasing collector rates, it was now attacking the middle class and poor with a threefold property tax hike. “The Congress will launch a decisive battle against these anti-people measures. If the Administration does not roll back these decisions, every street in the city will witness protests,” he said.

Lucky added: “If the BJP believes that public protests and outrage will not affect them, they are gravely mistaken. City residents already rejected the party in the Lok Sabha elections, and its leaders continued to be apathetic towards them, the BJP would face an even more crushing defeat in the upcoming MC elections, he said.

Dhillon said, “The BJP has betrayed the people of Chandigarh. With soaring inflation, unemployment, and now crushing taxes, the government is making their life unbearable. The Congress will oppose these policies at every level. We warn the government against taking anti-people decisions or the Congress will take to streets in every ward of the city.”

Councillor Darshna Rani, Senior Deputy Mayor Jasbir Bunty, Sachin Galav, Deputy Mayor Taruna Mehta, Yadvinder Mehta and former Mayor Gurcharan Das Kala were among those who participated in the protest.