Uddhav Thackeray has now announced that the party will not charge any property tax for flats up to 500 sq ft; offers discounts on bigger homes
Uddhav promises to also provide free healthcare scheme to be named after Balasaheb. (Right) Ashish Shelar
The Sena seems to have taken an interesting approach to poll planks: Make one incredulous claim after another to keep making headlines. After stretching imagination for the proposed coastal road that would reduce travel time between Nariman Point and Dahisar to a mere 20 minutes, it pushed itself further on Thursday by announcing a new sop for voters: Flats up to 500 sq ft size will not be charged any property tax. Additionally, housing units between 500 and 700 sq ft area will be given a handsome discount.
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However, not to be left behind, Sena’s friend-cum-foe BJP accused that the Sena chief had lifted the idea from BJP’s unreleased manifesto and was a demand that its city unit president Ashish Shelar has been making all along.
Walking the planks
“Housing and healthcare are major issues in Mumbai. And nobody knows who will pick your pocket these days. Considering this, the Sena has decided to waive off property tax for flats with an area up to 500 sq ft. Houses of a bigger size, say up to 700 sq ft, will get a good concession,” Uddhav Thackeray told a hurriedly-organised media conference at his Kala Nagar home on Thursday afternoon.
He added that if elected, the Sena would not only help citizens with property tax, but also offer better and free healthcare to people not covered under the government schemes. “The healthcare scheme will be named after the late Balasaheb (Thackeray). The rest of the schemes planned by us will be declared in the party’s manifesto on January 26,” he said.
Interestingly, on the question of whether these sops would incur and affect the BMC’s coffers, he said, “I don’t know whether others (read BJP) have burdened you, but let me tell you that this is not an election jumla (empty promise) like acche din. I have done it before and I will continue to perform even in future,” adding, “We have already started a DidYouKnow campaign in which we tell the people what we have accomplished in the past five years.”
Where’s the alliance?
Meanwhile, Thackeray said that matters related to the alliance talks between the Sena and the BJP haven’t reached him yet. “I don’t want to talk about it at this point of time because I think my statements should not affect deliberations. I’m expecting talks to move in an affirmative direction because it is said to be going positively,” he said, denying any further comment.
BJP snaps
Elaborating on their stance, city BJP president Ashish Shelar said Thackeray’s declaration was somewhat inspired by the demands made by him and his party colleagues in the state Legislature. “I had personally made a demand in the legislative session that flats below 600 sq ft should not be charged property tax,” he said.
He added that the BJP’s manifesto was about to be declared very soon. ‘Our manifesto says that the BMC should not charge road tax until roads are made better and pothole-free. The BMC collects at least Rs 600 crore through road tax, but the BJP does not approve of not maintaining roads despite colleting such a huge tax.” Shelar also noted that considering its mammoth annual budget of Rs 34,000 crore, the BMC must stop the ongoing “tax terrorism”.
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