The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is gearing up for the upcoming civic polls, protested against the proposed levy of service charge for door-to-door collection of garbage in the city. The party threatened to start a tax refusal movement if the proposal is not rolled back. AAP has demanded that the civic body hold a public consultation before implementing the service charge.
Prithvi Reddy, State convenor, AAP, said the proposal comes close on the heels of the hike in power tariff, and proposals to hike water tariff and property tax. “The BJP government in the State is acting inhumanely. How can it justify such proposals in these tough times when the income of a majority of people has halved due to the lockdown and the pandemic?”
Mohan Dasari, president, AAP, Bengaluru pointed out that the civic body was already collecting garbage cess as a component of property tax (around ₹45 crore), which is a fraction of what the civic body spends on solid waste management (SWM) – around ₹1,200 crore. However, he questioned the huge spend on SWM in the city. “The AAP government spends around ₹250 crore annually for SWM in Delhi, a city larger than Bengaluru both in terms of area and population,” he said.
