Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, October 24 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today condemned the Congress government as well as its Local Bodies minister Navjot Sidhu for inventing a new tax which will tax pet owners as well as those keeping cows and buffalos in municipal areas across the State.
In a statement here, former minister and SAD general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia said it required someone with “special ability” like Navjot Sidhu to come up with a “special” tax which seeks to not only charge a registration fee but also an annual renewal charge for keeping any kind of pet animal as well as milch animal in the municipal limits of towns and cities in the State.
Terming the new tax as anti-farmer and against small entrepreneurs, Mr Majithia said a large number of dairy farmers had established dairies within municipal limits and were supplying milk to the people as well as sweet shop owners. He said the new tax would adversely affect the business of the sweet shop owners and have a cascading effect on prices as the burden for the same would be put on the common man.
Stating that no effort had been made to arrive at a consensus with those who would be effected by this new tax, Mr Majithia said the new regulations were accompanied with draconian provisions including charging ten times of the registration fee if there was any delay in registration as well as compounding of annual license renewal. “There is also a provision of auctioning off animals found astray after a period of seven days”.
The Akali leader said this decision was reflective of the mindless behavior of Navjot Sidhu in comedy shows earlier. “Navjot Sidhu has not done one constructive thing in the last seven months. His department of Local Government has been the worst performing department in the government. His own performance has been zero. He is ridden with a Badal phobia due to which he is only interested in disbanding all programmes undertaken by the SAD-BJP government. Now he has come up with this new tax without holding any public debate on the same”.
Mr Majithia said the SAD contention that anti-people policies would be unleashed on the people of Punjab after the Gurdaspur by poll had been proven by a series of steps. “The government has given an order to close down 800 schools and has increased industrial and domestic power tariff by around 12 per cent. The new tax on animals will further burden the common man”, he added.
