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MC House reject mayor’s proposal of reducing garbage charges for industries
After the joint forum’s demand, the mayor had tabled an agenda to reduce the charges further to ₹150 - ₹300, depending on the size of the industrial units
The general house of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) on Tuesday rejected city mayor Anup Gupta’s proposal of reducing the garbage charges for the industrial areas, terming the proposal as ‘someone’s personal interest’.
The joint forum of Chandigarh Industries had requested the mayor that, “The residue from industries, such as iron scrap is reutilised and items like cardboard are sold as scrap. The collection of garbage cess, linked with property tax, should be rolled back or the garbage cess may be charged at a fixed rate of ₹200 per month from the industrial units.”
After the joint forum’s demand, the mayor had tabled an agenda to reduce the charges further to ₹150 - ₹300, depending on the size of the industrial units. As per proposal, the slash in rates will result in loss of ₹3.46 crore to MC, every year.
As per the solid waste management bylaws 2018, the user or garbage fee for small industries, workshops was fixed at ₹3000 per month. But after the demands of market welfare associations of Chandigarh, the garbage cess was revised and reduced to ₹1000 per month from December 2022.
The proposal, however, had not gone down well with the councillors of all parties, who said that this agenda will only favour one category of society and not the Chandigarh residents as a whole. They also said that the mayor, who himself is an industrialist, has personal interest in the proposal.
Senior deputy mayor and a BJP councillor, Kanwarjeet Rana, said, “I strongly oppose the agenda as industrialists are earning lakhs of rupees every month and they can easily pay ₹3000 every month. MC must not lose its revenue. Also, when MC had to cut garbage cess of residential and commercial units in erstwhile villages, we had only slashed the rates from ₹500 to ₹100. The proposal of slashing the rates for industrial units by almost 90% is not genuine.”
“We will not pass an agenda which favours only one segment of society. If the mayor wishes to slash garbage charges for industrial units, a new agenda should be placed in the next house with inclusion of slashing charges for UT residential as well as commercial areas,” said BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi.
Interest rates on pending dues of pvt taxi stand operators slashed
In some relief to the defaulting private taxi stand operators, the MC on Tuesday decided to slash interest rate on their pending dues and gave them six-month time to clear the dues.
Mayor Anup Gupta said, “The interest rate on the pending dues will be slashed from 24% to 10% while the taxi stand operators will have to clear their dues before March 31, 2024, otherwise they will be penalised with the existing interest rate and the stand will be e-auctioned from April 1, 2024.”
At present, 57 defaulting private taxi stand operators owe over ₹5.44 crore long-pending ground fees to the civic body. Out of the total amount, ₹2.57 crore is the principal amount while ₹2.86 is interest at the rate of 24%.
