5 per cent hike in water charges put on hold
| Date :04-Aug-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
Standing Committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has put on hold the yearly 5 per cent hike in water charges against the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic. Post discussion with Mayor Sandip Joshi, the Standing Committee directed the administration to draft a proposal about keeping hike in abeyance for the current year. This was stated by Vijay Zalke, Chairperson, Standing Committee, while interacting with newspersons after a meeting on Monday.
Administration had listed the issue of yearly 5 per cent hike for approval but since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already targeted State Government over inflated power bills, the decision of Standing Committee came on expected lines. BJP has three fourth majority in NMC House and hence they are likely to go for annulling yearly hike while administration is unlikely to sail with the decision.
The monthly meet of Standing Committee was held on-line on Monday at Central Office of NMC. Mayor was of view that the coronavirus pandemic has already hit the citizens hard and many persons have lost jobs or were forced to take pay cuts. So in such circumstance the yearly hike in water charges may be dropped and provide relief to Nagpurians. Zalke said, “Since the matter is now entrusted to wisdom of corporators, the general body is empowered to take final decision.”
Another issue on agenda about recruitment of teachers, Standing Committee directed administration to save money and instead utilise services of surplus civic teachers. Zalke said, “The proposal of administration would have created additional burden of Rs 80 lakh for next month wherein 56 teachers were proposed to be hired on hourly basis. However, Standing Committee pointed out to the officials that 296 teachers from Primary and 18 of High School are already declared surplus and their services should be utilised.”