Vadodara Municipal Corporation opposition raises key issue with urban development minister

VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation
(VMC) opposition raised key demands from the state government. The
opposition submitted a memorandum with these demands to state urban development minister Anandiben

Patel during her visit to the city on Thursday.

Patel was in the city to inaugurate the Vibrant
VCCI industrial exhibition. Following this she had visited the VMC
headquarters at Khanderao Market to hold discussions on development
works.

A delegation of opposition
Congress councillors of the VMC met her in the corridors of the
headquarters at this time and submitted a memorandum. The memorandum
raised several issues including that of grants from the state and bills
for use of water from the Panam project.

The
opposition stated that the octroi tax collection of the civic body had
seen a rise of around 18 per cent when the tax was being collected. But
the state government’s grand has not matched this figure. They claimed
that Rs 1,039 crore was paid less to the VMC as compared to what it
could have earned if octroi was still in place. Another issue raised was
that Vadodara was neglected in funding by the state government in comparison to Ahmedabad and Surat.

The
Congress delegation also pointed out that the VMC had been issued bills
amounting to Rs 712 crore for using Panam project water. This was at
commercial rates and despite the fact that the civic body had
contributed to the capital and maintenance cost of the project.