Port Blair, Feb 10: The Port Blair Municipal Council is making all out efforts to make the City world class. The projects costing about Rs. 800 crores will be taken up shortly under the Smart City Project for which a separately Company has been registered. Earlier during non BJP led Council the allotments of Shops/Kiosks/Parkings/ Hoarding sites were made based on certain vested interest. The Council is still facing many inquiries by Anti-Corruption and Court case for mis-deeds of previous regime. The recent initiatives of PBMC for allotment through transparent and fair bidding process have given new opportunities to un-employed youths of these islands. It has also yield un-precedented revenue amounting to many crores of rupees. The general public has also appreciated these sincere efforts of the PBMC.
During the previous Council in 2009, the Property Tax on land was introduced first time. Further the System of Property tax was made to complicated that it became the main reason for corruption by vested interest in PBMC and harassment of general public. The main defects in the property system are: Scope for misuse of discretionary powers by the Assessing Officials, Scope for subjective assessments and unfairness. Lack of transparency/fairness in the assessment process, Disparities in assessing monthly rents which leads to all sort of allegations and complaints, Need for the parties to visit PBMC for the purpose of assessment. Time consuming process, Now the PBMC in BJP regime decided to introduce transparent, fair, citizen friendly and professional way of assessment. Accordingly the Unit Area Method of assessment has been introduced which is the widely implemented system in most of the Municipalities of the Country and has various advantages: Simple to understand and need not to visit PBMC office, Self-assessment and ease of payment, No discretion with the Assessing Authorities. There is no scope of corruption.
Now an ordinary person can calculate his property tax and can make digital payment without any hassle. This system has got widely support of public with the suggestion to further rationalize the quantum of property tax. To give further relief to public, a special meeting of the Council has already been convened on 11.02.2017. This move could not be tolerated by the Congress Party and they all of a sudden started opposing this public friendly move of the PBMC. Opposing the honest move for the welfare of the citizens is highly condemned.
Instances have come into notice where the Non BJP Council ruled PBMC looted innocent Shop Keepers by allowing illegal constructions on the public land in and around Municipal Markets. The public areas are meant for circulations have been encroached by way permanent/semi-permanent structures/illegal extensions. The public area is meant for use by pedestrian and for traffic circulation which cannot be allowed to be blocked. These encroachments not only create hindrance in circulation but also affect the evacuation plan and movement of emergency services like Fire, Police and Medical Ambulance etc and most importantly during any natural disaster. Certain encroachments have exposed general public to serious risk for their life & property during natural disaster. Though the PBMC was not having any authority to allow such encroachments but some vested interests during previous regime be-fooled poor Shop Keepers and cheated them by false promises of regularizing such encroachments. The PBMC has decided that interest of general public will be given utmost priority and no compromise will be made with their convenience and safety.
