Sena trying to fool citizens: Cong on property tax waiver

A day after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray promised waiver in Property Tax for small tenements among other sops if voted back to power in BMC polls, Congress today attacked Sena and its alliance partner BJP, dubbing them as "miserable failures".

City unit Congress president Sanjay Nirupam dubbed Thackeray's promise as a ploy to "fool" Mumbaikars.

"The Sena-BJP combine has been ruling this mega city since last 20 to 22 years and have only cheated the Mumbaikars. It (the combine) could complete only 10 per cent of the promises which they had made in its poll manifesto five years back. This coalition has failed miserably as it could not even touch the rest of 90 per cent of its promises," he alleged at a press conference here.
 

Reacting to Thackeray's promise that tenements measuring up to 500 sq ft (carpet area) will be exempt from Property Tax, he said this is another "political jumla (rhetoric)" of Sena.

"Why Sena failed to do this so far, despite the fact that our government (led by Prithviraj Chavan) had issued a GR (government regulation) regarding the same a few years ago? Why they revived the waiver issue only this time?" he asked.

In a surprise announcement yesterday ahead of the BMC elections slated on February 21, Thackeray said, "We have decided that for existing homes having carpet area of upto 500 sq ft, property tax will be completely waived off and for homes upto 700 sq ft, there will be a concession in property taxes."

At the presser, Nirupam read out Sena-BJP's joint manifesto of the 2012 BMC elections and claimed that promises like completion of water projects, providing health cards to citizens made by the saffron allies are not fulfilled.

"They had also vowed to modernise and increase Marathi medium schools, but reports have found that 37 Marathi medium schools are shut down and many students of Marathi medium dropped out. They promised to generate 20 MW electricity from three dumping grounds, but not even preliminary reports have come in this regard so far," he said.

The Congress leader alleged Sena and BJP, which are at the helm of BMC for over two decades, are responsible for "playing with the lives of Mumbaikars."

"Even important Brimstowad project has been given a thumbs down by these two parties. This 12-year-old project is still incomplete despite the erstwhile Congress-led Central government releasing its full budgetary provision of Rs 1600 crore," he alleged.

Nirupam said his party will come up with the audio and vedio presentations highlighting the "failures" of Sena and BJP as the rulers of BMC.

"We will employ various modes of campaigning including social media to reach public," he added.