Keep your hsg society clean, save on water, property tax

The civic body may offer tax concessions to housing societies, Non-Government Organisations and social welfare organisations that actively participate in keeping their area and the city garbage-free.

Here’s another incentive for you to keep the city clean.

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The civic body may offer tax concessions to housing societies, Non-Government Organisations and social welfare organisations that actively participate in keeping their area and the city garbage-free.

In an attempt to engage citizens in making the city cleaner, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) will pass a notice of motion on the issue in its general body meeting on Thursday. If this is approved, the plan could come through in the next three months.

To avail of concessions, societies should enhance cleanliness standards. One such measure the civic body is encouraging would be segregation of garbage collected in societies, and increased coordination with local civic authorities to keep roads around the society clean. An NGO or welfare organisation can help societies in segregating garbage and also undertake various cleanliness and awareness campaigns across the city.

In return, societies and organisations will be given concessions in property tax or water tax. In addition, the civic body may start a rating system for individuals and NGOs to recognize their contribution.

“This initiative is to motivate individuals and groups to work for the betterment of the city. Such a scheme will encourage people and groups to come forward, which will ultimately benefit the city,” said Yashodhar Phanase, group leader, Shiv Sena. Phanase will move the notice of motion in the house. Once it is passed, the civic commissioner will ask the concerned department to submit a report on the feasibility of such a scheme.

Several civic officials said that it is too soon to comment on the usefulness of the scheme. “We will only have a clear picture once the process is complete. Till then, it is not possible to comment on it,” said an official.

Citizen activists too, are eyeing it with scepticism. "They had a similar scheme for rainwater harvesting, but that was not successful. Such schemes are like dangling carrots before citizens, they rarely reap benefits," said Surindra Khubchandani, member of H-West federation, Bandra.