Pune: PMC Conducts Door-To-Door Survey To Find Property Tax Defaulters, Citizens Concerned About Security
Mehab Qureshi
Pune, November 19, 2020: Citizens of Pune have expressed their concerns, claiming that Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is conducting a door-to-door property tax collection drive within city limits. Several residents have also expressed their concern stating that this is a recovery drive.
Amol Vyawahare, a resident of Aundh, said, “Some officials visited our society and asked whether I have paid property tax or not. When I said yes, I paid it online, the official later asked me to send the receipt on WhatsApp.”
While some residents also expressed their concerns stating that the data should be available with the civic body. “If the data is already available with them in their records, what is the use of this drive?”, asked Vijay Varangaonkar, a resident of Baner.
Many citizens are also worried about their security issues. “The form and other documents that they have looks genuine, but the official visiting our apartment did not have any ID with them. How can we be sure that the person is from PMC?”, asked another resident, who didn’t wish to be named.
When contacted, PMC’s taxation department chief Vilas Kanade told Punekarnews.in, “This is not a tax collection drive. We are just conducting a survey to check whether the residents have paid their property tax or not. This isn’t a recovery process, and this type of drive is currently going on in all the areas under PMC.”
When asked about the security issues of the residents, he said, “I have asked my staff to carry their identity cards with them, and if any citizens feel that this person isn’t from PMC, they can verify their ID cards.”
Vaishali Patkar, president of Aundh Vikas Mandal, said, “PMC should’ve informed all the police stations and ward offices so that we could contact them and receive some information about this drive. Either PMC should’ve informed us via the social media handles or at least given us some information about this because of unawareness this has caused chaos amongst people.”
