SWM tax will not be burden:Mayor

Cess collection will be judicious, says Municipal Commissioner

Right at the beginning of the general body meeting of MCC on Friday the opposition members questioned the Mayor about his stand on Solid Waste Management tax even before the commencement of door-to-door waste collection.

Responding to their query, the Mayor said, the Revenue Department has already chalked out the plan. Provision has been made to deduct the tax amount for the months when door-to-door collection of waste was not done.Elucidating the provision, MCC Commissioner Dr K N Vijay Prakash said that if an individual has paid the entire year’s SWM tax, say for example Rs 30 per month and if the collection of waste is delayed for about four months, then there will be a deduction of Rs 120, the next year.

In the II phase of the Rs 100 crore projects under CM’s fund the major part will be utilised for constructing footpath, drainage and parks. Informing the same at the MCC meting, the Commissioner said that the pending work of footpath and drainage will be completed under the project fund. Along with this, six parks and few cemeteries in the MCC limits including Nandi Gudda, Kadri and Surathkal will be developed.

Water Bill

In the backdrop of mismanagement in distributing the water bills by the water bill collecting agency Prasanna Technologies, Independent member Mariyamma Thomas urged the Mayor to call a special meeting to discuss in depth about how the new agency BCITS Private Ltd will function. The opposition members said, the concept of bill collection through Spot Billing Machine is ambiguous.

While discussing the agenda related to alignment of remaining 18 km road for developing Mangala Cornche Ring road, the Town Planning Officer informed that those who will lose their land will be compensated with Transferable Development Rights (TDR). They will be compensated on the lines of Town Planning Scheme of Gujarat, he said.

Heated Argument

Hike in property tax became the hot topic of discussion during the meeting. The opposition party members came down heavily up on the ruling party for introducing 15 per cent hike in the property tax without discussing it in the Council.