Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress on Tuesday threatened to gherao the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office on March 15 if the revised holding taxes levied on the residents of the city are not withdrawn.
Hundreds of Congress activists led by district president Biswajit Das and others staged a demonstration at Master Canteen Square today over hike in the holding taxes. Vehicular traffic on the busiest roads in the Smart City was adversely hit due to the demonstration.
The Congress leaders alleged that Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is collecting holding and property tax from citizens almost 10 times higher than the previous rate.
“The holding and property tax has been hiked by 10 times of the existing slab. A resident, who was earlier paying Rs 100, is now being forced to pay Rs 1000 as taxes. Already the people are facing lot of difficulties due to Covid-19 pandemic and the hike in holding and property tax will impact everybody,” said Congress MLA Suresh Routray.
