Property tax: Panchkula residents get error-ridden notices

Panchkula, April 20

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City residents are a harried lot due to gross anomalies in property tax notices being served on them by the local Municipal Corporation (MC). Errors like wrong name, area and floor information have forced residents to stand in long queues at the MC centre in Sector 12-A for rectification.

RP Malhotra, president of the Federation of Residents’ Associations (FORA), said it had come to their notice that a large number of city residents had received erroneous property tax notices for which they had informed senior officials of the civic body for immediate rectification.

Citing a personal example, he said the notice served on him mentioned two different names. “In one column, it identifies me as Ram Pal Malhotra, my real name, and another as Sudarshan Kumar Malhotra,” he said, adding that residents had to bear the brunt of the MC’s mistakes by standing in long queues in the scorching summer to get the errors in notices rectified.

Several residents’ welfare bodies have questioned the efficiency of a private agency, Yashi Consultancy Private Ltd of Jaipur, for irregularities in the property tax survey. “Every time they play with the data and leave residents in the lurch. The authorities are requested to make the website workable so that accurate feedback may be received from citizens,” they said.

Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan has also criticised the MC for large-scale anomalies in property tax notices.

MC Commissioner Dharamvir Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.