The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 10 Congress councillors detained

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

10 Congress councillors detained

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, MARCH 28. Ten Congress councillors who attempted to go on a fast at Ripon Buildings complex to protest against the Chennai Corporation's recent drive to send property tax demand notices to a section of residents were detained by the police today.

The councillors have charged the civic administration of having acted in a high-handed manner by sending tax demand notices without taking the permission of the elected council.

Though Corporation officials have said that only 2,100 demand notices have been sent to tax evaders with properties whose half-yearly value is more than Rs.10,000, Congress councillors insisted that several persons with much lesser half-yearly values had also received the notices. They accused the civic agency of inventing backdoor methods to hike the property tax.

The councillors led by Congress floor leader, R. Mano, were prevented from carrying out their protest and detained at a marriage hall near Kannapar Thidal. They were later released in the evening.

`Unfortunate'

The Corporation Commissioner, M.P. Vijayakumar, has said it was unfortunate that the councillors were taking the side of tax evaders.

"For the first time since general revision of property tax in 1998, we had taken up inspection of properties to check whether the declaration made by the assessees were accurate. Only in those cases where the self-declaration was inaccurate, we had sent the tax demand notices," he added. He reiterated that the property tax had not been increased since 1998.

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