Journalism of Courage
Slamming the state government for not taking steps to tackle the drought situation in the state, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the state government’s decision to compensate the local civic bodies in return for partial abolition of local body tax (LBT) has affected the financial assistance to suffering farmers in the drought area.
“The decision on LBT was completely wrong as the state government has to compensate for it with the money that could have been given to the farmers suffering due to the drought situation,” Chavan said, adding it was the citizens that were paying LBT and not the traders in urban areas.
“They have done partial abolition of LBT. It is just to please a few people and will negatively affect the development of civic bodies as well as have an adverse impact on the rural population,” said the former chief minister.
On Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) being clubbed with neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) for the smart city project, Chavan said, “The state government was cheating the citizens of Pune.” They are unable to define a smart city, he said, adding that the idea seems to be to set up special purpose vehicles and give the responsibility of development to a chief executive officer, appointed by the government, thus reducing the powers of mayor and municipal commissioners.
Chavan said that the BJP government has failed to fulfill its assurance of giving OBC reservations to various communities, including the Dhangar community.
