05 December,2020 08:57 AM IST | Mumbai | Prajakta Kasale
Ravi Raja, leader of the opposition, BMC
The Shiv Sena which rules the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been giving concessions in taxes and annual fees to big hotels and hoardings' contractors citing the COVID-19 crisis. But it rejected the demand of its allies in the state government - Congress, NCP and SP - seeking the same for other small stakeholders like vendors and licensees. The standing committee chairman did not permit anyone to talk on the issue on Friday, following which members of the three parties walked out of the meeting.
The BMC increases the advertising fees of hoarding contractors by 10% every year. This year there were COVID-19 awareness messages on hoardings. After a request from the Mumbai Hoardings' Owners' Association, the BMC waived off the charges of four months from April to July 2020 and also reduced the annual rise to 5 per cent from January 2021 to December 2021. The proposal about this was tabled in the standing committee meeting on Friday.
Rais Shaikh, group leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP) asked for permission to speak on the issue. But Yashwant Jadhav, chairman of the standing committee, did not pay attention to this despite several requests and passed the proposal without discussion. Ravi Raja, leader of the opposition and Rakhi Jadhav, group leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supported Shaikh and walked out.
Shaikh said, "We were not opposing the concession, but request waiving off fees of small licensees also. I made many requests till date, but it seems Shiv Sena is only taking care of big bullies and not small vendors." Raja said, "If the BMC waived off four months fee on the advertisements there wasn't an issue. But they are also giving them concessions in annual fee hikes. Why can't the same rule be applied to the general public?"
5 per cent
BMC's reduced annual rise for advertising fees in 2021
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