Sitting, former mayors rise above party lines to seek rollback of property tax hike

Sitting Chandigarh Mayor and her 10 predecessors on Tuesday rose above party lines and put up a united front to seek immediate rollback of threefold increase in the property tax. At a meeting with Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, they termed the tax hike “unjustified”.

Harpreet Kaur Babla and 10 former mayors demanded that the tax hike must be rolled back immediately as it has put a heavy burden on the residents of the city.

A day after the BJP leaders, Mayor Harpeert Kaur Babla and councillors met the Governor at the Raj Bhawan, Kataria held a meeting with the former mayors of the past 10 years today.

The purpose of the meeting was not only to seek suggestions of the former mayors to improve the financial condition of the Municipal Corporation (MC) but also to understand the reasons for the fiscal crisis reaching an alarming level. The civic body is struggling to even pay the salaries of its employees.

Babla, the MC Commissioner and other senior officers were also present at the meeting.

The former mayors who attended the meeting were Subhash Chawla, Anup Gupta, Sarabjit Kaur Dhillon, Ravi Kant Sharma, Poonam Sharma, Arun Sood, Asha Kumari Jaswal, Davesh Moudgil, Rajesh Kumar and Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor.

Chawla suggested that the Administration must give 30 per cent share of the taxes to the Municipal Corporation as per the recommendations of the Delhi Finance Commission Report. The former mayors said taxes should be increased gradually.

Sood said the MC must identify the ghost employees who are working at the houses of individuals but are getting salary from the MC.

All sitting and former mayors were of the view that the MC must be given departments like the Registration and Licensing Authority, which generates a lot of revenue. They said the Administration had handed over only those departments to the Municipal Corporation, which generate less income but incur high expenditures.

They said the MC spent a lot of money on maintaining sanitation, water supply, parks and green belts, but the income from these department was almost nil.