Vijayawada: People vent ire through ballots against increased civic taxes

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Urban Citizens Federation conducted people's ballot at Bellamkonda Sobhanadri Circle here on Monday to gather public opinion on the proposed collection of property tax basing on the value of the property and enhanced garbage tax, water and drainage charges from citizens in all the urban local bodies across the State. Several hundreds of citizens posted their opinion in the ballot protesting against the hike of property tax and other charges for the municipal services.

Addressing the gathering, convener of APUCF Ch Babu Rao said that similar people's ballots would be conducted at various places in the city and in other urban local bodies across the State.

He said that the Ministers are trying to hoodwink people stating that the enhancement would be only 15 per cent but never reveal as to why the government amended the municipal laws to fix the property tax. The YSR Congress government is threatening people with disconnection of drinking water and discontinuation of welfare schemes like pension and others.

He deplored that the government bowed to the pressure of the Central government to enhance the property tax. The ward volunteers are bringing pressure on people to pay the enhanced taxes. Babu Rao took strong exception to the use of force by the government to collect the property tax.

In some towns, the elected councillors and people's representatives are bringing pressure on citizens to pay taxes, he alleged.

Other leaders Donepudi Kasinath, Ramana Rao, Nataraj, Gurumurthy, Subba Rao, Kranti, Lakshaman, Sreenu, Chinna, Gowri and others participated.