A file picture of Dumka Municipal Council

Dumka, Nov. 9: The state’s reluctance to allow Dumka Municipal Council to collect taxes from jamabandi (non-transferable) land has hit the civic body financially, with the corporation incurring huge losses due to its dismal revenue collection.

The civic body, which has huge chunks of jamabandi land under its jurisdiction, has haplessly witnessed residential colonies mushrooming on them over the years, wherein the residents enjoyed various government-sponsored civic amenities not having to pay any taxes due to lack of ownership.

“Look at the state electricity board. They have assigned consumer numbers to all the households that have come up on jamabandi land and hence duly collect monthly bills. But we, despite providing all civic facilities to the residents, including drinking water, have not been able to impose holding or other taxes,” complained Amita Rakshit, chairman of Dumka Municipal Council.

Rakshit further claimed that the civic body’s governing body had approved a proposal for collecting taxes from all households under its jurisdiction some two years ago and sought guidelines from the state. However, the state headquarters had been sitting on the matter ever since.

Interestingly, a petition regarding the same was was submitted before chief minister Arjun Munda, during his Dumka visit earlier this month, also. But, the petition is yet to yield any result.

“We are about to start a drinking water project in the district soon. There might be confusion then, as those residing on jamabandi land will also apply for government water connections,” Rakshit said, advocating for provision of occupants of such lands.

The state government on the other hand, appears to be in a fix to take a decision on the issue as the transfer of ownership of jamabandi land has strictly been prohibited under the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act.

Thus, voting for or against the land ownership proposal is likely to stir up a hornet’s nest.

“The major portion of jamabandi land have been sold to a second party by their original owners in violation of the SPT Act, which does not envisage the transfer or sale of lands,” pointed out Arvind Verma of the SPT Act Suraksha Manch. He added that the manch would oppose any move of the government that seeks to allow ownership of land to the new occupants.

He further said that they would neither put up with the state tampering with the provisions of the Act by the government or any other agency.