The Hindu 17.12.2009
MCD meeting adjourned over property tax issue
Staff Reporter
| Congress councillors create a ruckus over proposed hike in the Standing Committee meeting |
NEW DELHI: Continuing to protest against the proposed increase in property tax, Leader of Opposition J. K. Sharma along with Congress councillors created a ruckus at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday leading to an adjournment.
Following the adjournment, disgruntled BJP councillors said that they would conduct videography of the next sitting and approach the Lieutenant-Governor over the issue of “unnecessarily obstructing the proceedings”.
Chaotic situation
Chaos erupted when Standing Committee deputy chairperson Rajni Abbi tried to raise the issue of illegal slaughtering in Delhi and Mr. Sharma insisted that he would speak on tax hike proposals brought in by Municipal Commissioner K. S. Mehra in the MCD 2010-11 budget unveiled this past week.
Sloganeering
Congress councillors, wearing placards against tax hikes, then started raising anti-BJP slogans which was followed by sloganeering and counter-sloganeering leading to the adjournment of the meeting.
Later, Standing Committee chairman Ram Kishan Singhal dubbed the protest by the Opposition as “premature and untimely” and said a final decision on implementation of tax proposals would only be taken after discussions.
‘Political mileage’
“We will keep in mind the welfare of Delhiites before taking a final call on the matter which will not be before a full-fledged debate and discussion. At present the increase in tax is just a proposal and Mr. Sharma is trying to gain cheap publicity and extract political mileage by protesting over it,” he added.
Meanwhile, the meeting postponed decisions on a new policy for installing mobile towers in Delhi and a proposal for increasing community hall booking rates. Two committees of councillors have been formed to look into the issues and submit their report in a fortnight.
