SHIMLA CPI(M) Kasumpati unit has strongly opposed the government's move to merge the rural areas with the Municipal Corporation Shimla. CPIM has dared Congress and BJP to clarify their stand on this.
CPI(M) leader and member of the State Secretariat Dr. Kuldeep Singh Tanwar said the old merged area is still bearing the brunt of being merged with the Municipal Corporation. The government still considers the houses built in the old merged area as illegal, he said.
Even now electricity and water connections are being given commercially in this area, which is burdening the public. They have to pay electricity and water bills at commercial rates. There is also no clear policy of the government regarding the tenants and local residents living in the merged area. The government wants to collect tax from here only by mixing the rural area with the municipal corporation but does not want to give relief to the public, he charged.
Dr. Tanwar said neither before nor now the people of the area were taken into confidence by the government to bring them into the municipal corporation. The government always takes decisions in a hurry to please its few and business interests, while the problems faced by the public after the merger and the impact on the area or its intricacies are not taken into account.
Dr. Tanwar also asked the Congress and the BJP to clarify their stand on the issue.
Satyavan Pundir, Secretary, Kasumpti Local Committee said the government is looking to expand the area of the Municipal Corporation to fulfill the conditions of Smart City and AMRUT Mission, so that it can use that money to shine Shimla city by giving work to its favorite contractors.
Pundir has appealed to the people of the area to come forward vocally for their fight or else the impractical decrees of NGT and TCP will become a trap for the people of rural areas.
Taking a jibe at the Congress and the BJP, he said that the local leaders of the BJP are shut because they cannot even oppose the wrong decision of their own government. If the Congress MLAs are not able to save even the panchayat in their home then how they will save the entire area, he asked.