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.