Pune: ‘No Concession In Property Tax Then No Votes In PMC Election, Give Votes To NOTA’
Pune, 5th September 2022: Vivek Velankar, president of Sajag Nagarik Manch, urged the citizens not to vote for any party in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Election, but to teach a lesson to the politicians by pressing the none of the above (NOTA) button if PMC did not give 40% discount on property tax to the citizens.
Velankar was speaking at a meeting of Sajag Nagarik Manch organized on the topic “What should citizens do to preserve the 40% property tax exemption”.
How is the Pune Municipal Commissioner’s recommendation to the government in this regard causing the cancellation of this discount? Velankar presented a detailed analysis on the basis of the information received in the Right to Information (RTI) about how all the political parties have failed in this matter.
He stated, “PMC has completely failed to recover the arrears of Rs 1200 crore. But it is infuriating that the 40% exemption available to honest tax-paying citizens for 50 years is arbitrarily withdrawn. Now the citizens have to put up a fight and put pressure on the political parties to restore this exemption.”
For this reason, Velankar appealed to most of the housing societies in the city to put posters on the doors of their societies saying “If the government does not decide to restore the 40% discount in property tax before the municipal elections, then we will vote for “NOTA” in this election without voting for any political party.”
Speaking on the occasion, Suhas Patwardhan, President of Pune District Housing Society Federation, expressed his intention to raise this matter with the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister through the Federation and take the court route when the time comes. Jugal Rathi proposed the vote of thanks.
