Source : The Hindu Date : 01.07.2009
Udupi CMC discusses errors in property survey
Staff Correspondent
| Notice issued to those who have paid tax |
Udupi: The issue of survey of properties for tax assessment dominated the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) here on Tuesday.
Raising the issue, councillor Kiran Kumar said that the CMC had assigned the task of surveying the properties to a private agency.
There were many anomalies in its survey and the CMC had served notices to many property-owners in the city, based on the erroneous data provided by the agency. Besides, the CMC had wrongly mentioned huge amounts in the notices against the property tax to be paid by the people. Many people who had paid their property taxes promptly under the self-assessment scheme (SAS) were taken aback by these notices. The CMC should take action against those responsible for serving such wrong notices to property owners, Mr. Kumar said.
Councillor M.R. Pai alleged that many elderly people, who came to the CMC office to enquire about the anomalies in the notices, had been ill-treated by the CMC staff. This had only compounded the problem. “The CMC staff should be taught to behave courteously with the people,” he said.
Dinakar Shetty, president of the CMC, conceded that there were anomalies in the survey. Notices had been sent without discussing the issue with him. “Such unilateral actions will no longer be tolerated,” he said.
Councillors Nityananda Volakadu and Jayananda said that the attempt of the CMC at implementing the door-to-door collection of solid waste had failed, and people continued to throw garbage on road sides. Mr. Shetty said that a majority of the people were still not handing over their solid waste to the agency-appointed workers. Steps should be taken to increase public awareness on the system, he said.