TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Outcry against Cuncolim Municipal Council’s move to increase the house tax continues with residents demanding that the civic body maintain status quo or face a stir.
Even as Cuncolim MLA Rajan Naik on Saturday reassured that he would impress upon the CMC Chief Officer Pandarinath Naik not to go ahead with the proposed house tax hike, Vice-President of South Goa district Congress Committee John Monteiro has threatened to lead an agitation against the civic body if the proposal is not scrapped immediately.
Terming the house tax proposal illogical and without any rationale, Monteiro demanded that the chief officer as well as the councillors should explain to the people of Cuncolim why they thought of suddenly increasing the house tax. “If at all the civic body was interested in increasing the house tax, the Municipality should have called for a public debate on the proposal and taken a decision only after that. The fact that the civic body has decided to go ahead with the tax proposals without considering the public at large proves that the city fathers have accepted the proposal and have already drawn up a plan to burden the households with heavy doses of taxation,” Monteiro said.
Demanding to know why the CMC councillors did not object to the rates during the discussions, Monteiro said this proves that the councillors were totally in favour of the proposal to increase the burden on the common man.
