Couple harassed for 8 months over error in property tax bill

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, May 11

A couple living in a 50-sq m house has been running from pillar to post for the last eight months to get their property tax bill rectified in the Municipal Corporation (MC) office in Panipat.

Fed up with the ‘lethargic’ attitude of the officials, the woman finally offered her ornaments to an official and pleaded him to get the work done. After the matter went viral on social media, the DC office took cognisance of their problem and assured them their work would be done.

Shailender Sharma of Raj Nagar said he worked 12 hours a day at a factory to make both ends meet. He bought a 50-sq m plot in Raj Nagar and got an MC notice seeking property tax bill amounting to Rs 73,528 by showing the house area as 75 sq m. He filed an application at the property tax branch, but nothing was done, he alleged.

Shailender said the case was sent to a committee, the officials concerned visited their home and recommended to correct the property tax as Rs 637, but even after that, their bill was not corrected.

When on Thursday, he and his wife again went to the office and asked for the status of their file, the clerk allegedly refused to do so. Fed up, his wife offered her gold earrings and anklets to the official and requested him to make the changes. When people gathered there, the clerk took out their file from his almirah. Shailender said that the clerk had knowingly kept the file and didn’t correct property tax in the last eight months. He said he finally received a call from the DC office on Friday and they assured him that the work would be done on Monday positively.