Congress MP responsible for financial mismanagement in MCC, Housing Board: Jain
BJP unveils scathing poster blaming Congress for raising taxes, sitting on funds while neglecting development
• Government behaved like a capitalist amassing money, making profits
• Promises BJP will not levy any new taxes on Chandigarh citizens
Sharpening his attack on Congress MP and Union Minister of State for Finance, BJP candidate for Chandigarh Lok Sabha Constituency Mr Satya Pal Jain today came out with a scathing poster on financial mismanagement of funds collected by Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and Chandigarh Housing Board. Unveiling the poster in a Press Conference here, Mr Jain pointed out that the Chandigarh MP is an ex-officio member of the Municipal Corporation.
Mr Jain said that the mandate given to Congress party five-year back created only problems for the common man. Even the poor have been burdened with heavy taxes, while over Rs. 1400 Crore, collected through taxes or from sale of real estate assets have been lying idle in the banks in fixed deposit accounts. He questioned the commitment of Congress MP from Chandigarh to the city and asked how can he be ignorant about funds to the tune of hundreds of crores kept as fixed deposits by Municipal Corporation controlled by his party and Chandigarh Housing Board? He called it criminal negligence and expressed shock at the revelation that even the interest on these fixed deposits was not being spent on development.
Mr Jain said Public funds have been raised for development of city, as the city has grown beyond is projected size, it needs lots of infrastructure. Plans like construction of under passes, urban transport are lying in a limbo and a Metro, economical housing to make Chandigarh a slum free city are the needs of the day. Questioning the wisdom of government behaving like a capitalist who works for amassing money and making profits, he held the congress MP and MOS finance fully responsible for Government sitting on funds to spare while still planning to add to tax burden of citizens. Mr Jain said the government has behaved in a tax hungry, shirker and sahukar like fashion.
He promised that on coming to power at the centre the BJP-NDA Government would speed up development of Chandigarh and would not levy any new taxes on Chandigarh citizens. Mr Jain criticised the proposal to impose house tax in Chandigarh on the advice of Finance Commission in spite of the fact that Chandigarh Municipal Council has nearly 500 crore rupees in its bank accounts. He regretted the fact that Chandigarh Housing Board has a cash balance of over Rs 900 crore and the funds are lying idle, losing value because of recession. He blamed the Congress MP of only bragging about having done a lot for the development of the city. Mr Jain put the Congress party in the dock by saying that while they have no plans to use the money already with them, they are planning to levy more taxes. He questioned the wisdom of raising the tax burden of the citizen without the ability to use available funds.
Mr Jain said only a small amount out of the massive tax revenues raised here is allocated for the development of Chandigarh, this year even the existing budget allocation for Chandigarh has been reduced. Jain said under these circumstances there is no justification for raising or levying of new taxes in Chandigarh.
He said people of Chandigarh face many problems relating to roads, power and water. In the last ten years no new plan for expansion of railway station or flyover etc has been approved for Chandigarh, in fact even the existing facilities have been reduced. The discord between Congress government at centre, Congress MP, Municipal Council and local Congress leaders has stalled all development works in the city.