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Congress stages protest against imposition of property tax in J&K
Led Congress’ J&K chief Vikar Rasool Wani and working president Raman Bhalla, the protesters marched towards the Residency Road in Jammu, where they were stopped by a heavy contingent of police
Scores of Congress workers on Thursday protested here against the imposition of property tax in Jammu and Kashmir, with party’s J&K chief Vikar Rasool Wani accusing the UT administration of being “anti-poor”.
Led by Wani and Congress’ working president Raman Bhalla, the protesters marched towards the Residency Road, where they were stopped by a heavy contingent of police.
Following a minor scuffle with the cops, senior party leaders intervened and stopped the protesters from forcibly proceeding ahead. They later staged a sit-in.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration had recently notified the imposition of property tax in municipal areas from April 1.
“The (BJP) government (at the Centre) is anti-poor which is evident from its policies over the past nine years. It divided J&K into two UTs and is afraid of holding assembly elections, knowing fully that the distressed people will throw it out of J&K,” Wani told reporters.
He alleged that the LG administration was bent upon to destroy the people economically. “First, it introduced an anti-encroachment drive to raze the houses of the poor and now imposed property tax,” he added.
Wani also attacked the BJP-led central government for increasing the prices of domestic gas cylinders.
“The people of J&K are already overburdened and reeling under a great economic and political distress for over 33 years because of militancy, political uncertainty and other factors. This unprecedented price hike besides the large-scale unemployment, Covid and abnormal security situation due to targeted killings of innocents, especially members of minority community, has destabilised the economy of J&K,” Wani added.
Members of the Apni Party also staged a protest in Udhampur against the property tax and demanded immediate revocation of the notification.
