Urban News

The Pioneer  14.10.2010

PNS | Rishikesh

The dharamshalas and hotels providing accommodation to tourists and pilgrims in Rishikesh will now have to pay tax to the Rishikesh Municipal Council (RMC). According to official sources, the managers of these ashrams and dharmshalas will have to pay tax at the rate of

`10 per person being provided accommodation. This was one of the proposals passed during the montly board meeting of the Rishikesh Municipal Council. The monthly meet was presided over by the chairman of the municipal council, Deep Sharma.

The ward members discussed various proposals for increasing the revenue income of the municipal council including the imposition of tax on dharamshalas and ashrams in town providing accommodation on commercial basis to pilgrims and tourists visiting Rishikesh. This proposal was unanimously approved by the municipal council board. The board members rejected a proposal of a private company for undertaking work for cleaning and beautification of the Triveni Ghat area.

According to information provided by official sources, issues related to development works in town and other proposals were brought up for discussion during the monthly meeting of the municipal council board. One of the proposals discussed was the imposition of tax on dharamshalas and hotels as per the directions of the Government.

The managers of hotels and dharamshalas will now have to pay tax to the Rishikesh municipal council at the rate of `10 per person being provided accommodation.

The Deccan Chronicle  14.10.2010

Oct. 13: Is the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) displaying a step-motherly attitude towards areas where property and other tax collection is below satisfactory levels? If residents of Bhuvaneshwarinagar of Sultan Palya are to be believed, the answer is yes.

According to the locals, BBMP had taken up a number of development works in and around Bhuvaneshwarinagar including asphalting and concretisatisation of the roads, clearing of drains, proper maintenance of street lights and garbage disposal. The work has now come to a standstill. Speaking to this newspaper, R. Rajshekhar, a local resident, alleged that BBMP officials are neglecting their area citing poor tax collection and urging them to ensure that the tax collection is better from their area before they seek any assistance from the civic body.

“Whenever we approach them seeking assistance, they tell us about all these issues. It is true that there are a number of tax evaders in our area. But I do not know how BBMP can deny civic facilities to the entire area for the mistake of some people,” he asked.

“There are scores of houses in our area and they are built after getting permission from BBMP. But due to the lethargy of local revenue officials, a majority of them have become defaulters. BBMP is now using this as an excuse to deny us facilities. But they are not giving anything in writing,” he said.

But BBMP officials deny any such step motherly treatment. Speaking to this newspaper, chairman of BBMP tax and finance standing committee P.M. Sadashiv said there is no provision to deny civic facilities for defaulting tax. “We are giving ` 4 to 5 crore per ward to take up development work annually. We are treating every ward as equal. In such a situation, such allegations are baseless,” he said.

But Opposition leaders in the Council claim development work has been halted due to shortage of funds. Opposition leader in the BBMP Council M. Nagaraj said when BBMP is facing a financial crisis, how can take any development work be taken up? Officials are simply misleading the general public,” he said.