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Pune: Residents of Uruli-Phursungi want reduction in property tax as they are not getting enough water.
Citizens groups have demanded that Pune Municipal Corporation ,PMC) and the state authorities should reduce the tax and make it at par with the gram panchayat rates.
According to PMC officials, the reduction in the levy is a policy decision and cannot be taken up at the civic administration level right now in the absence of an elected body.
“The villages have been merged with the PMC for more than five years. We are struggling to get water from PMC and citizens are still dependent on tankers. If the city administration is not able to provide facilities to these villages, they should be demerged,” said Vishal Harpale of Phursungi Vikas Seva Sangh.
Shrirang Chavan of Haveli Taluka Kriti Samiti, a citizens’ group, said, “Availability of water is not the only issue. Even the maintenance of existing water supply facilities is a herculean task. Even if we have to repair water motors, we wander from door to door. There should be a better system. Citizens should get good facilities as they are paying heavy property tax.”
Residents said the PMC’s fee is almost five times more than the gram panchayat. Property owners in the merged villages said that an average of Rs 2 per square foot per year was collected as property tax by the gram panchayat. The civic body charges Rs 2 per sqft per month.
But a senior PMC official said that it has followed all the rules for raising the levy. “The tax was not increased suddenly and heavily. This was increased gradually every year and was brought at par with the PMC rates in five years. So, effectively, the property owners end up paying less tax than what is paid by the residents of the PMC,” the official said.
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