Lukewarm response to Silchar Municipality Board's self-assessment drive

A CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: Amid mass protest, only 1500 self assessment forms had been submitted to the Silchar Municipality Board so far. Last date of submission ended on September 10. Total number of holdings in 28 wards of the town is 26,608. SMB, which presently has no elected body, would now start a house drive to assist and convince the people to fill the forms of self-assessment and subsequently the forms of reassessment to find out the exact picture of both the demography as well as the properties of the dwellers.

Admitting the submission of self-assessment forms was much less than what it should have been, the Executive Officer of SMB Ashutosh Deka said, agitation by civil society against the self assessment process had created some misconception among the dwellers. He however admitted that there was some lacking in publicity for the necessity of the drive.

Deka however assured that no penalty would be imposed on those who had not submitted the forms in due time. SMB would now depute its own employees for house to house collection of self assessment forms. They would help the dwellers in filling up the forms.

Distribution of self assessment forms began on August 10. But the civil society of the city reacted sharply against the drive mainly for two reasons. Firstly, since there was no elected body in the SMB for last couple of years hence as per Municipality Act, fixation of tax amounts to violation of the Act. Secondly, the proposed rate of taxation was 20 times more than the existing one and hence the citizens would be burdened with much higher tax. How come municipality tax could be fixed without having any elected body and without holding any citizens meet, the civil society argued.

The issue obviously generated much heat in the political circle too. TMC MP Susmita Dev in a sharp attack opposed the proposed taxation citing certain clauses that indicate violation of the Municipality Act. She threatened to launch agitation if the district administration fails to hold citizens' meet.

Silchar MP Dr Rajdeep Roy admitted that he too was worried about the proposed rate though he believed that the State government would definitely give a second thought on the issue. Local MLA Deepayan Chakraborty on the other hand sounded much more aggressive as he cautioned the citizens that failing of submitting the self-assessment forms would invite legal action. District BJP led by its president Bimalendu Roy in the meantime met State Minister Jogen Mohan and urged upon him to rethink the matter.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had clarified that the drive intended to assess the real scenario in each municipality area of the State. In many towns in Assam there had been no assessment of household for last three to four decades and that created some problems in planning of upgrading the concerned towns. Taxation would be fixed only after the assessment process was complete and obviously taking the people in confidence, Sarma assured.

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