Property tax row: GMC officials delay meeting minutes, councillors protest
The minutes, which document the repeal of the proposed property tax hike, were to be shared publicly.
Officials blamed a basement fire at the GMC office on Friday for the delay, but councillors have alleged deliberate delay and foul play. A group of councillors had earlier staged a sit-in protest at GMC's headquarters in Navyug Market, demanding the immediate release of the meeting minutes.
"We called off the protest after officials, including municipal commissioner Vikramaditya Singh Malik, assured us that the minutes would be provided at 10am on July 25, after the kanwar yatra," said Himanshu Sharma, councillor of Ward 75.
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"The officials missed the deadline, and mysteriously, the same afternoon, the basement of the GMC office was gutted in a fire. Now officials are saying that no work could be carried out at the office because the fire disrupted operations, preventing them from sharing the minutes on the assured date. This is a very uncanny coincidence," added Sharma.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sunita Dayal said, "I was told that officials would share the minutes with my office at 10 am on Friday, but I have not received them.
I ensured that the hike in property tax proposal was annulled, and it is for the officials now to answer anything related to the matter."
In response, commissioner Malik has formed a committee led by additional municipal commissioner Jung Bahadur to ascertain the cause of the fire. "Minutes of the meeting could not be provided on the scheduled date because of the fire, and to rule out any foul play, the commissioner has formed a committee to probe the incident.
Instructions have been issued to normalise working at GMC as soon as possible. The minutes of the meeting will be provided after that," said a GMC official.
On the issue of property tax, a case was filed in the Allahabad High Court against GMC's decision to impose a hike, and the court is due to hear the matter on July 30. The hike in property taxes took effect on April 1. The property tax rates before April 1 were between Rs 0.32/sq foot on properties with less than 12m of road width, Rs 0.48 to Rs 2 for roads 12–24 metres wide, and Rs 0.65 to Rs 2.41 for wider roads. The revised rate is between Rs 0.75/sq foot to Rs 4/sq foot.
In March this year, the board passed the proposal to link tax with the DM circle rate. GMC calculates tax based on the annual rental value (ARV) of a property.
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