Nagpur: Mayor Sandip Joshi, who is under treatment for Covid-19 at a private hospital, on Tuesday told media persons that ruling BJP in the NMC has fulfilled its promise of giving rebate in property tax and water bills.
Without naming state energy minister Nitin Raut, Joshi said the ruling party leaders in the state government had first announced to waive electricity bills of up to 300 units of power consumed during Covid-induced lockdown and then retracted. “Later, after promising to waive bills up to 100 units, the government cheated the citizens by rejecting that proposal too,” he said.
“What standing committee chairman Vijay Zalke had promised in his NMC budget, the civic administration has fulfilled it. The citizens will benefit from this,” said the mayor.
Joshi admitted that BJP had proposed to waive 50% of principal amount of property tax and water bills this financial year. However, it was rejected by the then municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe. He said this demand required nod from the state government, but the current schemes announced by the NMC can be implemented through municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B’s nod.
He also thanked Radhakrishnan for implementing an amnesty and one-time settlement schemes for both property tax and water bills defaulters at a time when citizens are reeling under financial crisis due to the pandemic.
The mayor urged the administration to take help of sanitary workers to reach out to every citizen informing them about the OTS and amnesty schemes and also appealed to corporators to help the NMC to recover outstanding property tax and water bills dues. “If the civic body improves tax collection, city’s development works could be carried out easily,” he said.