Subhechcha Ganguly 
In response to mounting public and political backlash over the recent property tax hike, UT Administrator and Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria has convened a special meeting on Tuesday with the city’s last 10 mayors and the current municipal commissioner. The meeting aims to address the financial crisis faced by the Municipal Corporation (MC), which triggered the steep tax hike.
The move comes shortly after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation, led by city president Jatinder Pal Malhotra and Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla, submitted a memorandum to Kataria demanding the immediate withdrawal of the hike. The BJP has alleged that the decision was made solely by bureaucrats without consulting elected representatives or the administrator himself.
Adding to the pressure, the BJP unit had earlier warned that the mayor and all party councillors would resign if the hike wasn’t rolled back and funds weren’t released by April 16. However, no resignations have been submitted yet.
Meanwhile, the Congress continues to hold protests against the hike, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, questioning the move’s constitutional validity.
Ironically, the BJP-led MC had earlier proposed an even steeper hike in a bid to ease its worsening financial crisis.
