‘Property Tax’: PDP demands revocation of order
Says party cannot take part in JK delimitation process
Srinagar: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday demanded the revocation of property tax on the residents within the jurisdiction of Badamibagh Cantonment Board here after some inhabitants claimed to have received such notices.
Addressing a press conference here, PDP chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said the decision to levy property tax in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Badamibagh Cantonment Board was arbitrary and must be rolled back immediately. Badamibagh Cantonment Board, or BB Cantt, is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Defence.
There are reports that the people living within the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board are being asked to pay property tax. Instead of helping the people who have been suffering from 2019, the government is pushing the people to the wall, Bukhari said.
He said the decision should be revoked especially since the people in the Valley were suffering economically.
This arbitrary decision of charging property tax from the local residents should be revoked immediately. People should not be made to suffer. People are in distress for the last two years as they have suffered economically. The government institutions or agencies rather than helping the people are giving them more trouble by such decisions, he said.
Bukhari said it seems the decision has been taken to weaken the people of Jammu and Kashmir economically as well as politically.
The Badamibagh Cantonment is a class II cantonment established in 1954, covering a total area of 1458.537 acres including civil area of 313.50 acres, according to the board’s website.
Referring to the rumours in the valley that the Centre was planning further reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP spokesperson asked the administration to come out with facts.
If they are only rumours, then the government should have come forward to dispel these rumours. Some high-ranking official should come on record and tell the people that these are all rumours and assure the people so that there is no uncertainty, he said. Bukhari said the delimitation commission has been designed in a way that only elected representatives can be part of the exercise.
Bukhari was asked about the stand of his party as well as that of the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) — of which the PDP as well as the NC are constituents — over the issue.
“I cannot say anything on behalf of the alliance. However, as far as the PDP is concerned, I want to tell you one thing that it is not about the alliance taking part in it or not. It is the decision of the individual parties of the alliance,” he said.
The PDP cannot participate in the proceedings of the commissions as the party has no members in Parliament or in the legislative assembly, he said.
“The way the commission has been designed, only elected representatives are part of the exercise. The PDP as of now has no MP or legislator, so we cannot participate in the process,” he said.
“As far as the NC’s participation is concerned, I think it is that party only that can answer this question,” he said.
While the PDP has no MP in the Lok Sabha, its MPs in the Rajya Sabha have either completed their term or were expelled.
Asked to comment over the remarks of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that the immigrant Muslims should follow family planning norms for population control, Bukhari said Sarma was not the first person to say something like that.
“We have been hearing many people, especially BJP leaders, say this for some years now. There is no sense in finding any sense in these remarks,” he said.
Press Trust of India
