UGD cess dearer by 25 pc; effective from today

The cess will be collected along with water cess, announced Mayor Pushpalatha T B Chikkanna.

Earlier, in a startling revelation, it came to fore that the documents of the civic body were allegedly tampered, revising underground drainage (UGD) cess to 50 per cent, triggering heated arguments.

Be cautious

However, the issue was solved with Mayor Pushpalatha T B Chikkanna announcing that the UGD cess remains unchanged at 25 per cent (revised from then 15 pc) as decided in the meeting held on March 4. She also announced that the records reading excess cess stands null and void and will be spiked, asking the council secretary to be cautious henceforth.

When the issue was raised, the immediate past mayor Sandesh Swamy was surprised to know up that the cess was revised up to 50 pc during his tenure.

After collecting the documents, he claimed that he had signed the order (revising cess from 15 pc to 25 pc) after poring over the same.

He alleged that the sheet that reads the order (50 pc) has been inserted without his knowledge, strongly seeking a thorough probe into the issue. Similar was the reaction of most of the councillors who fulminated the civic body for levying more burden on the common man.

However, they stressed on a separate discussion on the issue, if the authorities concerned were keen on going for further revision.

` 10.63 cr for sewage

In his explanation, the commissioner asserted that the City Corporation has earmarked `10.63 crore to address leakage of sewage alone. 

In favour

He seemed to be in favour of hiking the cess to 50 per cent. The officer said that the local body was spending more on the related works, against the measly sum it’s earning in the form of cess.

In the year 2010-11, ` 4.17 crore was collected in the form of UGD cess against ` 12 crore spent on the same.

According to the directions from the government of India, earnings and spending should match equally.