CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to befool the people of the union territory by resorting to cheap gimmicks instead of prevailing upon the union home ministry to withdraw the steep hike in property tax.
In a statement here, senior SAD leader Charanjit Singh Villy said the fact of the matter was that the BJP cleared the way for a threefold hike in property tax for residential properties and a twofold hike in tax for commercial premises by not bringing the agenda before the house tax committee. “It is clear that the Mayor and BJP councilors connived with the administration to facilitate imposition of the new property tax regime and are now shedding crocodile tears and even giving fake calls for mass resignations”.
Charanjit Villy said it had been three days since the Municipal Corporation Mayor had threatened to resign along with all BJP councilors in case the decision was not withdrawn. “It seems this was done with the sole purpose of befooling the people. If the Mayor and the BJP councilors were serious about protecting the interests of the people they would have resigned by now or prevailed on the union home ministry to withdraw this arbitrary hike. The very fact that they are continuing in their posts makes it clear that they were part and parcel of the decision to impose this heavy burden on the people of the city”.
Villy said the SAD would not take this lying down. “We will do our utmost to ensure this anti-people decision is withdrawn. The party has decided to launch a people’s movement against this decision and will not rest till we achieve our goal”. He also appealed to the people to support the SAD in this endeavor.