Home tax slash for slums: TMC

TT,  Siliguri, April 10: The Trinamul Congress's Siliguri civic election manifesto that was released today spoke of reducing house tax in slum areas from Rs 12.50 to Re 1 for every quarter and of giving free drinking water to poor residents.

"With the permission of the state government, the tax in slum areas which is Rs 12.50 will be made Re 1," the manifesto said, but did not explain how this would affect the coffers of the civic body.

There was no mention of whether the other house tax slabs - the Rs 12.50 per quarter slab is the lowest - would be altered.

On the same page, the manifesto mentioned free water supply to the poor.

There are over 100 slums in Siliguri town, where several lakh residents would benefit from the deep slash in house tax.

Trinamul's tax sop move is akin to Mamata Banerjee's announcement regularising hawkers across the state in a bid to capture the urban poor vote.

On March 13, at a programme in Calcutta, the chief minister had said: " Ami hawker uchhed chai na. Ami hawker der ainoto adhikar dite chai jatey bhobishyote keu aapnader tariye dite na pare (I do not want to remove hawkers. I want to give hawkers legal rights so that no body can remove you)."

The Left in its SMC manifesto had mentioned that it would reduce the tax burden on the poor.

By announcing the Rs 11.50 quarterly slash, Trinamul has checkmated the Left.

A political observer said: "Both sides have promised better drinking water supply in slums. Trinamul has now gone to the extent of committing free drinking water supply in the homes of economically poor people. It is evident that both sides are eyeing the slum population."

The Trinamul manifesto focused on reducing congestion in several areas of Siliguri, which is north Bengal's most important town and transit point.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, while releasing the manifesto, tried to make a case that after the SMC board became defunct and got dissolved, the state government had stepped in and brought civic amenities to the people of Siliguri.

"For the past six months, people have seen a series of development works done in and around Siliguri. Right from development of roads, installation of LED lights, beautification of important crossing and parks to introduction of mechanised garbage collection and disposal, they have witnessed massive change in civic services done by the state government," Deb said.

"It is easy for the residents to compare the development vis-à-vis the stagnant situation and dwindling civic services since 2009, when the Congress ran the civic board with CPM's support," Deb added.

He requested people to vote for only Trinamul so that it gets majority as "our experience of forming alliance to run the civic board is not good".

Among the road infrastructure projects listed were three overbridges including escalators over different roads that is expected to reduce pedestrian load on Hill Cart Road, Sevoke Road and Bidhan Road. It takes several minutes for a pedestrian to cross the roads, particularly in rush hour. The foot overbridges should help;

The manifesto also mentioned a flyover in Bagrakote for light and medium vehicles.

Siliguri is divided by the railway line that connects Siliguri Junction with New Jalpaiguri.

A flyover in Bagrakote, where there is an unmanned level crossing, would help smoothen traffic movement.

Also promised was a 1km-long arm to connect the DBCRD flyover to Station Feeder Road, replacing the existing narrow arm, used for only one-way traffic.

The bus stand at Court More, which was a reason for traffic congestion on Kutcheri Road, would be shifted to another location, the manifesto said.

It said the Ghoshpukur-Salugara stretch of the NH31 that crosses Bagdogra, Shivmandir, Matigara, Darjeeling More and Bhaktinagar More, would be four-laned.

The manifesto set 2016 as the deadline to open the fifth Mahananda bridge.

It would help people to cross the river and would connect more localities easily.