AIADMK members walk out of council meeting

DINDIGUL

Councillors belonging to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) walked out of the Dindigul Corporation council meeting held on Monday in protest against the State government's decision to raise property tax by 100 to 150%.

The council meeting of the newly elected councillors of Dindigul Corporation was led by its first woman Mayor J. Ilamathi and was presided over by Corporation Commissioner S. Sivasubramaniam and Deputy Mayor S Rajappa.

The meeting convened with full strength of all the 48 ward councillors at the council hall in Dindigul Corporation. The walkout was led by Councillor S. Rajmohan while raising slogans protesting against the property tax hike and three AIADMK councillors followed suit.

Councillor Jyoti Basu of Communist Party of India (Marxist) raised the issue of sub-standard and narrow roads laid in RM Colony and urged the Corporation to take necessary actions. Councillor of Ward 8, R. Anand of DMK criticised the Corporation officials for not adhering to the Chief Minister’s orders on milling of the old roads before laying new ones thereby affecting residents along the stretches of newly laid roads suffering from rainwater and drainage seeping into their compounds.

CPI (M) Councillor S. Ganesan raised the issue of improper sanitation in the town due to lack of sanitary workers. He urged for the appointment of sanitary workers at least on a temporary basis to speed up the cleaning works. He also brought to the attention of the Mayor the pending house pattas sanctions to the Arunthathiyar community residing within the Corporation limits.

Discussing the property tax hike, Ms Ilamathi said that in Dindigul Corporation alone, property tax had been raised only on properties above 600 square feet. Advertisement on seeking public opinion on the hike would be given in the dailies on April 13 but the decision of price hike stands until further notice, she said.

Nine resolutions were passed in the meeting. One of them said, the State government has decided to revise property tax based on the instruction of the 15th Finance Commission. Besides that, revision of property tax and vacant land tax has been made mandatory for getting the subsidy under AMRUT-2 and Swachha Bharat Mission 2.0.