Minister of state for urban development Prajakt Tanpure rejected the demand of MLAs to bring down the property taxes in 34 villages merged with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). This shattered the hopes of thousands of citizens living in the fringe areas with PMC who are still deprived of basic amenities. Tanpure was replying to the demand of MLAs representing these areas to slash the property tax in these merged villages in the state assembly session. Keeping his point further, the minister said that it would not be appropriate to introduce a reduction as the PMC has provided facilities in the merged village.
23 VILLAGES MERGED IN 2021
Around five years ago, the Maharashtra government approved the merger of 23 villages surrounding Pune into the PMC limits. Before 2017, the people living in these areas were paying tax as per the gram panchayat rates, which were much less. And in 2021, the government bought in an additional 23 villages under the civic limits and these villages had to start paying tax according to the PMC rates. But the MLAs, corporators and law makers in these villages opposed the move since the civic body provided very few facilities for these areas. The residents hoped for better roads, sanitation, and public transport systems when the merger of villages happened. But what the villagers and residents living there got instead was a higher property tax with no headstart to development,