NAGPUR: Standing committee
chairman of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Avinash Thakre has
strongly reprimanded city engineer Sanjay Gaikwad for harassing citizens
over a property tax case. He also told Gaikwad that if he felt that NMC
had incurred a loss due to wrong assessment then he should recommend
that this should be recovered from the employees concerned.

Fourteen property owners of Deshraj Layout, Jaripatka, had been directed
by the then Asi Nagar zone commissioner Rajesh Karade to pay tax with
effect from 1970 even though they had already paid it till 2008.
Strangely, many of their neighbours did not get demand notes with
retrospective effect. The affected citizens claim that many of their
neighbours had paid bribes to NMC staffers.

Gaikwad simply
rejected the appeal without assigning any reason in August 2012. The
citizens led by consumer activist Shankar Gulani met municipal
commissioner Shyam Wardhane in November who agreed that grave injustice
had been done to them and ordered Gaikwad to hold another hearing.
However, the official is yet to decide the case.

When these
citizens went to meet Gaikwad on Monday, he was in Thakre’s chamber.
Some of them urged Thakre to help them. This TOI reporter was also
present there.

After going through the case, Thakre asked
Gaikwad the reason for not passing an order. At first, the officer said
some of the residents had been occupying the property for several years
but did mutation in 2008. Thakre pointed out that reassessment could not
be ordered on this count. Gaikwad then said the assessment had been
done as per rent chart, whereas it should have been done on the basis of
area. He also claimed that he had not overruled Karade’s order as both
were of equivalent rank.

The standing panel chief then lost his
cool. “Whose fault is it if the assessment was not done properly? How
can you harass citizens for the fault of our people? If you feel that
NMC has incurred loss then recommend it in clear letters that the amount
should be recovered from the employees concerned and send this to your
senior officer for further action.”

The citizens also told
Thakre about harassment by Asi Nagar zone officer Prakash Warade
following which the chairman has convened a meeting of Warade, ADMC
Ravindra Kumbhare and Gaikwad on Tuesday morning.

It’s matter of attitude

Many NMC officials are accused of insensitivity towards citizens but
rarely a journalist gets an opportunity to witness such behaviour. This
TOI scribe had also seen the Jaripatka residents first meet additional
deputy municipal commissioner (ADMC) Ravindra Kumbhare over Gaikwad’s
non-compliance of Wardhane’s directives.

Kumbhare told them
that if Gaikwad did not follow his orders then there was nothing he
could do. “He is not my junior. Please take up the issue with the
municipal commissioner,” Kumbhare asked the residents.

Kumbhare
is senior to Gaikwad and even if the latter is not directly working
under him he has to obey Kumbhare’s directives in property tax cases.