REJECTING The general board of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC), which is governed by the BJP, passed the Rs 2,637.80 crore budget of the civic body for the year 2023–2024 on Friday in response to a demand from the Congress to drop proposed increases in water charges and property tax.
Before the special meeting of the 70-member general board began, Leader of Opposition, Bhanu Sorani and fellow Congress corporator Maqbul Daudani held demonstrations outside the Rameshbhai Chhaya Sabhagruh, the general board meeting hall of the RMC demanding withdrawal of the proposal to increase the annual water charges from Rs 840 to Rs 1,500 for residential premises and Rs1,680 to Rs 3,000 for commercial premises.
The two Congress corporators also demanded that the proposal to increase property tax for commercial premises also be dropped.
Only two members of the opposition participated in the voting on the budget proposals, and they voted against raising water and property taxes, doubling door-to-door garbage collection fees for commercial buildings to Rs. 730, and instituting an environment charge of 10% of general property taxes for buildings with carpet areas greater than 50 square metres. However, the BJP, which has 68 board members, was able to secure a majority vote to pass the proposals.
“We opposed the proposals of increasing water charges as they amounted to exacting taxes from poor and unsuspecting citizens. The proposals of increasing water charges belies failures of schemes like Nal se Jal,” Sorani said later on.
However, Rajkot Mayor Pradip Dav, who presided over the budget meeting of the general board, said the RMC had to increase water charges to partially cover increased expenditure of supplying drinking water.
Talking to mediapersons after the budget meeting, Dadv said: “The last hike in water charges was affected in 2008 and we are into 2023 today… RMC is getting Aji and Nyari dams filled twice a year through the SAUNI pipeline to ensure enough supply of drinking water. So, despite the increase in the water charges, we will continue to provide subsidy to city residents and not passing the entire amount of increase in expenditure on people.”