Congress workers have resorted to an indefinite relay hunger strike demanding immediate roll back of hike in taxes effected by the Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC) here on Monday. The protestors, sitting at Nehru Square said, the decision of the civic body to hike the taxes almost three times more would have a serious repercussion on the daily life of the common man who could not afford to spend more on account of the current living cost. The BMC justified the move as an attempt to arrest the huge revenue gap and to provide better facilities to the citizens.
Dismissing the arguments, Congress workers said, the BMC was already collecting exorbitant amount as taxes and its loss was on account of its failure to collect the taxes from the people. The Congress workers also said at least five party leaders would sit on the protest every day and will continue it until the BMC would roll back the additional hike of taxes. Earlier on Sunday, Congress workers also performed a ‘Nukkad Natak’ (street play) near Brihaspati Bazaar to create awareness among the people about the tax hike.
Addressing the gathering, Ramsharan Yadav said that Mayor Kishore Rai had failed in discharging his duties and implementing the poll promises. He said that hike in taxes once again exposed the real face of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had no concern with the woes of common man. He had also pledged support of his party to the common man. Yadav also threatened the dustrict administration with violent strike like the one it witnessed way back in 1996 when people resorted to violence demanding Railway Zone in which public property worth crores of rupees was destroyed.
The indefinite hunger strike was also addressed by former Mayor Rajesh Pandey, leader of Opposition in BMC Sheikh Nazruddin and former leader of Opposition Basant Sharma. Senior party leaders including State Secretary Mahesh Dubey, Deputy leader of Opposition Rajesh Shukla, District President Narendra Bolar, District Spokesman Abhay Narayan Rai, Shekhar Mudaliar, l N Rao, Councilors Shailendra Jaiswal, Akhilesh Bajpayee, Kashiram Ratre, Ramesh Gupta, Bhagirathi Yadav, Rama Baghel, Bharat Kashyap, Manoj Sharma, Nirmal Manikpuri, Kundanlal Kamle besides large number of party activists were present in the demonstration.
