Silchar Municipality Board's tax hike drive irks people

A CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: Silchar Municipality's move to hike tax on the basis of assessment and reassessment had sparked a major protest in the town. Apart from political resistance, the civil society of Silchar had formed a common forum to thwart the move of SMB.

At present the SMB is run by an Executive Officer as there is no elected body. Move to hike tax by a municipal board without any elected body and without holding any citizens' meet is arbitrary and undemocratic, alleged Nagarik Adhikar Surakshs Mancha, which had already started street corner meetings to create awareness among the public against the move by the SMB.

TMC MP Susmita Dev had asked the district administration to convene a citizen meet within September 8, failing of which would compel her to resort to mass agitation. Though MP Dr. Rajdeep Roy and MLA Deepayan Chakraborty surprisingly preferred to maintain silence on the issue, a district BJP delegation led by president Bimalendu Roy on Thursday night met minister Jogen Mohan. Bimalendu Roy claimed that Mohan had asked them to place their points in a written format. The district BJP president had been opposing the move right from the beginning.

Meanwhile, SMB had already started distributing assessment and reassessment forms which had created much confusion amongst the citizens. The incoherence in fixing the rate for land per kotha in various localities clearly indicated that the calculation had been done arbitrarily, alleged the members of the forum, which included dignitaries like Professor Tapodhir Bhattacharjee, former Vice Chancellor of Assam University, Atin Das, a senior journalist, Haridas Dutta, Sadhan Purkayastha, Supriyo Bhattacharjee.

Sources said, sensing the public fury, the government had giving the process a second thought. The State Cabinet had decided to upgrade Silchar Municipality Board to a corporation. But the process of upgrading the board to a Corporation was yet to get the nod from Dispur. Hence the civic body was being run by district administration as there was no elected representative.

Susmita Dev said, she had already talked to Jayanta Malla Baruah, who was made the Guardian Minister of Cachar on Friday, and urged him to stop the process of hiking the municipality tax till an elected body assumes the charge of SMB. Further, a citizens' meet had to be convened immediately.Dev pointed fingers at Dr Rajdeep Roy and Deepayan Chakraborty alleging that they had betrayed their voters by maintaining silence on such important issue.

A majority of BJP members felt the way the taxation was being imposed on the people of the town would hamper party's prospect in the coming Corporation election.

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