Drain water overflowing on streets irks village residents

THE main road of Kambasi village is always submerged in overflowing sewer water. The drain water flows all over the street and emanates foul smell. Though lakhs of expenditure is shown to be spent on maintenance of drains, residents are still forced to live amid unhygienic conditions there. I have made several complaints regarding this in the past two years to the sarpanch and BDPO (Barara), but to no avail. I request the concerned authorities to take necessary action and find a permanent solution to this perennial problem. Sameer Bakshi, Ambala

Two-pronged response to tackle illegal street vendors

THIS is in response to a news item in Chandigarh Tribune of January 14, regarding illegal street vendors. There are two ways to resolve the problem – one is to be strict from the beginning and not allow encroachment on roads even if there is a single violator, following whom more people come and settle there and second is that public on their part should not buy anything from them as they are causing inconvenience to many people like them by encroaching upon roads and footpaths. If they get no business, they themselves will go away. The administration and public, have to play their part together to check the problem. Arun Kumar, Panchkula

Road sweeping machine a burden on Kaithal Municipal Council

THE road sweeping machine deployed in Kaithal town by the Urban Local Bodies Department following NGT directives, has ‘failed’ to deliver the desired results, despite the fact that the local municipal council had to pay Rs 4.70 lakh per month to the contractor for keeping the machine functional. Deployed to sweep town roads, the machine moves along the central verge (dividers) only and does not touch the both sides of roads. Thus, the garbage, polythene and other waste material keeps lying on the roadsides. After contacting municipal council staff, when I contacted the Panchkula-based contractor and brought to his knowledge that except dividers, the roadsides were not swept by the machine, he said the machine had strong suction power and could suck even heavy materials lying on road. Following this disclosure, it is clear that neither the municipal council nor the contractor is bothered to ensure cleanliness of roads thus leaving the town residents to live in poor sanitary conditions. If those at the helm of affairs awaken from slumber, the Kaithal roads may look neat and clean. Satish Seth, Kaithal

Discrepancy in notification for property tax

I want to draw the attention of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to the piquant situation that has arisen where the benefits and other concessions announced by the state government are being denied to a lot of property taxpayers who have not paid arrears of tax in a lump sum on the ground that the benefits announced cannot be availed by them since the payments made by them are not made before the target date. The notifications issued by the government in this regard do not speak about the same, yet this condition is wrongly added to it by the local authorities. As a matter of fact, the notifications allow one-time concession only if arrears are paid or cleared by the target dates fixed by the government. It does not talk about one-time payment nor debars multiple payments at different times, i.e., even in instalments before the due date. The government scheme and policies are to facilitate recovery of arrears of property tax, which remains unrecovered in huge amounts and is not meant to curb or obstruct its recovery or deny benefits if payment is not made in a lump sum or at one time. The only condition laid down is that the benefits can be enjoyed only once during this period if full arrears are paid before the target date. ADV Vinod Kumar, Karnal

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