CURCHOREM: The ruling councillors of Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) and Chairperson Balkrishna (Pinty) Hodarkar on Friday demanded to immediately roll back the increased rates of garbage and house tax imposed by the government.
Speaking at a press conference, Hodarkar informed that during the last meeting of council, held just before the end of tenure of last council under his chairmanship has urged the government not to implement the new rates of garbage and house tax in the CCMC jurisdiction.
“We received the proposal in May last year to increase the garbage and house tax as per grades of the municipalities but in the last council meeting, all the councillors took the resolution urging the government not to implement the new proposed rates in CCMC’s jurisdiction and asked to allow to continue with the existing rates but soon after our tenure got over, an administrator was appointed and an order was issued by the government directing to implement the new rates within two months,” said Hodarkar.
Speaking further he said that the new rates are implemented as per the government bylaws under “The Model Municipal Solid Waste Management and Handling Bylaws 2020”, by the administrator as per the government direction, and not by the new council.
“The last council meeting had taken the resolution and along with the market association’s letter, we had sent the request to the government not to implement the new rates but soon after our tenure got over the government issued the order and directed the administrators of all the municipalities to implement the new rates within two months,” said Hodarkar.
He requested all the other 14 councillors to strongly recommend and pass the resolution during next meeting urging the government to roll back the new rates immediately and wave off the garbage tax for the people.
