Now, another Jawali village demands exclusion from Nagar Panchayat

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, March 17

Days after residents of Makrahan village in Ward 2 sought exclusion from Jawali Nagar Panchayat, residents of Bhol village in Ward 1, too, today aired the same demand.

CAN’T PAY TAXES

The ward has a population of 850, but most residents are poor and fall in BPL category. As such, they can’t pay taxes.— Pooja Devi, Councillor

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A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the residents at Bhol village on Sunday. The meeting presided over by Neetu Kumari, a former nominated councillor of the Nagar Panchayat, saw women outnumbering men.

The residents also held a demonstration in support of their demand seeking exclusion of their ward from the Nagar Panchayat and its merger with Bhanai gram panchayat.

Former councillor Neetu Kumari lamented that most families living in the ward were poor and unable to pay house tax besides hefty water and electricity charges.

She said the residents had opposed the inclusion of their area in the Nagar Panchayat created in 2016 by the then Virbhadra Singh government. She claimed that after shifting their ward from Bhanai gram panchayat to the Nagar Panchayat, the residents had witnessed no development in the area, but had only been financially burdened by the Urban Development Department by way of the taxes.

The residents also lamented that the MGNREGA scheme had also been discontinued in the urban civic body and underprivileged residents had no source of livelihood after the discontinuation of the rural job scheme.

Pooja Devi, an elected Councillor, said this ward had 250 families and a population of around 850, but most residents are poor, unemployed and fall in BPL category. The Councillor urged the Urban Development Department to defer house tax imposition.

Earlier, the residents of Makrahan, Ward 2 of the Nagar Panchayat, had held a demonstration seeking their exclusion from the NP.