Property tax up by 15 pc

City Municipal Council to have bye law by January

The hike in the water tariff and property tax led to heated discussion in the meeting. In spite of stiff resistance from the opposition, the ruling members went ahead with the hike in water tariff and property tax. 

The CMC President H M Nandakumar said “as per the direction of the government, the water tariff must be increased to Rs 120 and the property tax must be hiked by 15 per cent. As majority of them had opposed the move to hike the water tariff to Rs 120, it was decided to increase it to Rs 90.”

At the same time, the water tariff was not hiked for the last 14 years. It had been retained at Rs 45 for the last 14- years. The electricity rates have increased and the wages for the staff have also gone up. In this background, the hike in water tariff is inevitable. The opposition should not politicise the issue, he appealed.The opposition members Abdul Razak, T M Ayyappa and Muneer Ahammed opposed the move of the CMC. “It is not right on the part of the CMC to hike the tax without supplying adequate water,” they said.

The CMC President Nandakumar said “a sum of Rs 27 lakh is being collected in Madikeri as water tax. However, the CMC is spending Rs 80 lakh for maintenance. Hence, we had to depend on the government for supplying water. To get funds from the government, we have to follow the guidelines of the State government.” He said though the government guidelines directs to increase the property tax between 15 to 30 per cent, we have increased it by 15 per cent.

Road work

The work on road from Chowki to Convent Circle will be taken up at the earliest. “If the contractors fail to take up the work by next Monday, we will cancel the tender and go for re-tender,” said Nandakumar. The members said that the tender for the road work was invited four years ago.
 
Middlemen

The middlemen menace is on rise in the CMC. The middlemen are hand in glove with the CMC officials There is a need to check middlemen menace in the CMC, said member Sathish Pai. Supporting Pai, Prakash said few files get approved faster because of these touts. Commissioner N M Shashikumar said that citizen charter will be prepared in the CMC to check the interference of middlemen. The citizen charter will fix deadline for availing the documents.

Houses

Nandakumar said that the CMC will construct houses for the poor. About 10 acre land has been identified for the construction of houses at Rajarajeshwari Nagara. Survey is being carried out by the Tahsildar. Houses will be constructed under Vajpayee Housing Scheme.

Bylaw

The CMC Commissioner said that the CMC does not have a bylaw, which will be prepared by January. “Without the bylaw, we can not pool the resources. The CMC is not able to increase the tax for the commercial complex and meat shops. The Udupi CMC has already prepared a bye law. We would try to get a copy of Udupi CMC bye law and adopt few points from it.”

Vice-President Vasanth Keshav was present.