Residents and shopkeepers in Thane were greeted with heaps of garbage outside their homes on Thursday morning. The reason? They had failed to pay the garbage disposal tax to the Thane Municipal Corporation on time.
Residents and shopkeepers in Thane were greeted with heaps of garbage outside their homes on Thursday morning. The reason? They had failed to pay the garbage disposal tax to the Thane Municipal Corporation on time.
With the financial year coming to a close, the civic officials dumped the garbage outside shops at Gokhale Road, Kalwa, Station Road and Ram Maruti road. These prime locations in Thane are always crowded due to their proximity to the railway station. The civic body had passed a resolution to collect Rs 7,500 as garbage disposal tax for 12 months.
Pravin Jain, owner of Nagrik jeweller on Gokhale Road, was shocked to find leftover garbage outside his store. "People gathered in large numbers and shopkeepers were confused as to what exactly happened that for footpaths to be covered with heaps of garbage."
"A civic official later revealed that it was because we had not paid taxes to the civic body," said Jain.
Bharat Mota, president of Subhash Path Road for the businessmen in Thane said, "We have CCTV camera footage which shows that the garbage from TMC garbage truck was used, and the employees were seen throwing garbage."
"Fish, chicken and mutton waste was thrown outside the stores owned by members of the Jain community. So we protested," said Mota.
Sanjay Waghule, Corporator from TMC, said, "We received calls from various shopkeepers and businessmen complaining about garbage being dumped outside their stores. We met the civic commissioner and complained to him. Arm twisting citizens to collect taxes is condemned."
In return, local shopkeepers along with BJP corporators from the area joined hands and threw garbage in front of the Naupada ward office.
Sandeep Malvi, PRO, Thane Municipal Corporation, said, "We have asked the businessmen to calm down. We will soon come up with a mutual agreement regarding this."
Meenakshi Shinde, Mayor of Thane, said, "We will take action against the authorities involved, and we plan to cancel the collection of the tax after the General Body Meeting."
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