Jammu, 4 March. Aam Aadmi Party’s Jammu provincial vice-president Amit Kapoor accused the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory government of misleading people on the issue of property tax. Along with this, he said that the government should stop harassing poor people in the name of removing encroachments from government lands.
Amit Kapoor said this while addressing a press conference here in Jammu today. Senior AAP leader appeals to people not to be misled by the false propaganda being run by the current UT administration on property tax as clarifications are being issued by Deputy Commissioners to top bureaucrats on the issue to mislead people . He said that the officials are doing this only to fool the people and impose property tax on the people.
He said that it is quite surprising to see that even the Lieutenant Governor is making frivolous statements quoting figures and facts which do not match with the reality. He rejected the LG’s statement that very few people would have to pay property tax as the maximum construction in the city is less than 1000 sq ft. He said that when property tax will be imposed as per the notification issued, it will affect 75 to 80 percent of the population living in urban areas.
Amit Kapoor said that even though the built-up area on the land may be less than 1000 sq. ft., maximum such houses are two storey and even three storey, which means that all such small houses are 1000 sq. ft. including all the floors. will exceed the ceiling area of Rs.1,00,000 and will thus be subject to wealth tax.
The senior AAP leader said that this clearly exposes the bad intentions of the administration as bureaucracy is being used as a weapon to mislead people on this important issue. He said that it is really unfortunate that even top officials of the Lieutenant Governor’s administration are making misleading statements, which are not in accordance with the true spirit of democracy in any case. Accusing the UT administration of not matching its words and deeds, he said that the statements issued by the authorities could no longer be trusted. He questioned his earlier promise to the LG that property tax would not be imposed in J&K without consulting duly elected representatives.
Amit Kapoor took a jibe at the central government, saying that even India’s home minister Amit Shah had said that power has been transferred to 30,000 elected people in J&K, but unfortunately by imposing property tax on these elected people have not been consulted before. Which is open exploitation of the elected representatives of the public, because they do not want to impose property tax. He demanded that elections should be held first and then the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly would decide whether to impose property tax or not. So LG should withdraw the property tax for the betterment of the people of J&K. At the same time, he said that the government should immediately stop harassing the poor in the name of vacating the government lands, otherwise the Aam Aadmi Party will start a big movement on the streets on both these issues.