Reforms go rural in Bengal: No free ride now, not even on a bicycle

The panchayat and rural development department has suggested a resource mobilization plan for the three-tier panchayat system. The plan is based on a comprehensive tax structure for almost every conceivable aspect of rural life.

The aim: to help the panchayats find their own sources of revenue.

The model memorandum circulated by the department suggests that villagers be asked to register bicycles, handcarts and rickshaws with the panchayats.

In fact, villagers using any of these forms of transport for commercial purposes like carrying agricultural products to village markets will have to pay a tax not only for the vehicle but also for maintaining the market place and for the use of roads that the panchayat might have built.

The model memorandum even suggests that all pets like dogs, cows, goats, sheep and horses would have to be registered with the local body and a licence obtained against a fee.

A price will also be extracted from those who let their cattle graze on khas land (land vested with the government) or land under the control of local panchayats. Similarly, user charges will be imposed for supply of drinking water, irrigation, sanitation, maintenance of roads. Even small enterprises like husking mills, poultry, and fish farms will be taxed.

The government is said to be spending at least Rs 250 crore on the salary and wage bill of panchayat staff in the state. ‘‘It’s a right step, though a belated one,’’ says Buddhadeb Ghosh, editor of a magazine that reports on rural bodies.‘‘In states like Kerala, Karnataka or Punjab, the per capita own-resource revenue for local bodies is over Rs 50. In Bengal, this is less than Rs 2.”

The Trinamool Congress has already held a 48-hour dharna. It has also called for a bandh on Feb 3.

The government says that the provisions for collection of tax was incorporated in the Panchayat Act by the Congress regime in 1973 and the government has sent a memorandum, and it is up to the rural bodies to accept or reject it.

Panchayat officials differ. Implementation of tax, fees and tariffs on various services has been made ‘‘mandatory’’ in the notification, said a bureaucrat in the department.