OUR CORRESPONDENT
MANGALDAI: All the citizens of Mangaldai Municipality Board strongly opposed the government’s ‘anti-people’ move to impose the property tax at an exorbitant rate.
Citizens from the cross sections of the society of this district headquarters town attended a spontaneously convened public meeting at the conference hall of Bishnu Mandir on Saturday and strongly protested the government’s decision and even compared it with the colonial policy during the British rule. “We have the heritage and the legacy of Pothorughat where 140 rural farmers offered supreme sacrifice while raising their voice against enhanced land revenue imposed by the British. We hope the government will act as the government of people,” said a citizen expressing his strong resentment while taking part in the jam-packed meeting.
The meeting chaired by a retired Town and Country Planning official, Bhadra Sarma was also addressed by people from different sections of the society, including senior citizens, traders, lawyers, representatives from local public bodies, women entrepreneurs, retired and serving government officials etc . The speakers discussed different factors like value assessment for old inherited property, taxation for services which are not availed by them, procedures followed by the authorities as per the government notification and other legal and technical issues in connection with the draft for property taxation at an exorbitant rate and termed it to be unjustified and irrational.
The meeting urged upon each and every resident under Mangaldai municipality area to raise objections before the municipal authority on their own before March 20 to avoid new taxation from the next financial year. The meeting formed a common public forum christened as ‘Mangaldai Nagar Nagarik Jagaran Manch’ with Bhadra Sarma as the president, Girish Ch Deka as the working president, Bijay Chanda as the secretary, Amarjit Shandilya as the coordinator and representatives from all the ten wards to carry forward the protest in a democratic way.
The meeting adopting strong resolutions vehemently opposed the tax hike and demanded the government to quash it without delay and decided to take out a protest rally from the Bishnu Mandir campus to the Mangaldai Municipality Board office on March 20 and to submit a public memorandum to the authorities in support of their demand. The meeting also decided to go for the legal battle in the court of law if democratic protests fail to get the desired result.
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