After attack on octroi chief,armed guards at every post

He added that even as the octroi staff is criticised if they fail to achieve the set target of collection,life threatening issues of employees are not given due importance. “Basic and other security facilities should be provided to those working at the octroi post,” Nikam said.

Nikam was attacked during a surprise visit to octroi post at Kharadi on Wednesday evening when he saw a civic staff on duty being assaulted by few people and ran to protect the employee who had stopped the truck carrying sand. Soon other octroi evaders damaged the vacant vehicle of octroi chief after he moved to octroi post.

The PMC had earlier informed the city police about octroi evasion racket and have been demanding police support for the purpose. It had filed 10 complaints with the city police against the gangsters obstructing the work of civic staff by threatening them and with no action from the city police had even sought status of the complaints under Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The city police on Thursday arrested truck driver Deepak Salunke (25) who allegedly assaulted the PMC octroi chief and the security guard at the Kharadi octroi booth. Salunke was granted bail on Thursday.

The PMC employees union condemned the attack and demanded security at the posts. Earlier,the issue of few elected representatives providing support to the tax evaders was also raised in the civic body. The gold merchants have started paying octroi on gold and silver after the civic body started collecting octroi as per the new rate of 0.35 octroi on VAT as against earlier rate of three per cent.